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WOMAN'S   WORTH 


AND   WORTHLESSNESS, 

THE  COMPLEMENT  TO 

''A    NEW    ATMOSPHERE." 

/o/< 

By  GAIL    HAMILTON. 


NEW    YORK: 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN     SQUARE. 


S  ©   5   0      7 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1871,  by 

Harper  &  Brothers, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


J  14-^'' 


y 


HQ 


Xj   V^ 


PREFACE. 


I  HAVE  called  my  book  "  The  Complement  to  a  New  At« 
mosphere,"  to  remove,  if  possible,  the  misapprehension  of 
those  who  have  given  it  the  honor  of  their  attention  as  it 
has  appeared  from  week  to  week,  and  who  have  been  dis- 
turbed by  what  has  seemed  to  them  a  change  of  views. 

Strictly  speaking,  it  is  impossible  to  obtain,  and  insolent 
to  undertake  to  present  an  adequate  idea  of  any  subject  or 
object  without  changing  one's  views.  We  are  directed  by 
very  high  authority  to  walk  about  Zion,  and  go  round  about 
her,  not  stand  still  and  stare  at  her  from  one  point.     I  sup- 

"^   pose  Zion  looked  very  different  seen  from  the  Mount  of 

s^    Olives  and  the  Fount  of  Gihon,  but  it  was  Zion  all  the  while. 

1^      Change  of  views  involves  more  or  less  change  of  opin- 
.     ions — is,  indeed,  made  for  the  purpose  of  forming  opinion. 

^     Looking  but  casually  at  Woman  Suffrage,  I  regarded  it  with 

indifference.     From   a  careful  survey,  I  can   not  regard  it 

but  with  apprehension.     The  more  closely  I  scrutinize  it, 

the  more  formidable  seems  to  me  the  revolution  which  it 

implies,  the  more  onerous  seem  the  duties  which  it  imposes. 

I  feel,  also,  ever  more  and  more  vividly,  that 

"  It  is  not  ours  to  separate 
•f  he  tangled  skein  of  will  and  fate  ;" 

and  many  things  which  once  I  would  have  attributed  to 
cold-blooded  malice  I  would  now  attribute  to  partial  growth, 
to  imperfect  adjustment,  and  so  find  it  easier  to  hate,  up- 


vi  Preface. 

root,  and  cast  away  the  sin,  and  yet  love  the  sinner — if  he  is 
not  too  hateful !  But  of  any  change  important  enough  to 
be  spoken  of — supposing  any  change  worth  speaking  of — 
I  am  unconscious.  I  know  that  I  have  never  swerved  a 
hair's  breadth  from  my  belief  that  the  only  way  out  of  our 
estate  of  sin  and  misery  is  the  slow  growth  of  individual 
excellence,  and  that  it  is  in  the  home,  in  the  family — more 
sacred  than  any  church,  the  only  divine  institution  —  that 
this  excellence  must  be  chiefly  nurtured. 

Whether  such  a  belief  assigns  to  woman  a  commanding 
or  a  subordinate  position  in  the  world's  economy  I  must 
leave  to  the  judgment  of  my  readers. 

Gail  Hamilton. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTBB  TAG% 

I.  THE   STATE  OF   NATURE 9 

II.  THE  STATE   OF   [FRENCH]    GRACE 24 

III.  FALLING   FROM   GRACE 45 

IV.  THE  PURSUIT  OF  THE   FORTY  THOUSAND 64 

V.  THINGS  NEEDED  AND  THINGS  WANTED 90 

VL  WOMEN  AMONG  THE  PROPHETS II6 

VIL  DISABILITIES I34 

Vin.  SERFDOM 154 

IX.  SERVILE  OCCUPATIONS 167 

X.  HOME  TRAINING 180 

XL  FEMALE  SAGACITY   IN   POLITICS I9I 

XIL  PRESS-WORK 2o6 

XIII.  REPRESENTATIVE   REFORM 237 

XIV.  THE   NECESSITY  OF   FEMALE   SUFFRAGE 246 

XV.  EXEMPTION   OR   IMPOSITION 264 

XVL  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MEN 272 

XVII.  RESULTS 276 


WOMAN'S  WORTH  AND  WORTHLESSNESS. 


THE  STATE  OF  NATURE. 


"  My  dear,"  I  said  to  my  friend  Hassan  the  Turk — Has- 
san is  not  his  real  name  ;  but  circumstances,  into  which  a 
generous  public  will  not,  I  trust,  peer  too  closely,  have  m.ade 
an  alias  grateful — 

"  My  dear,"  I  said, 

"  I  shall  go 
To  Professor  Blot." 

"  My  dear,"  he  replied,  limping  promptly  after  me,  but  in 

most  un-Gallic  guise, 

"  I  think  you  better  not 
Go  near  Professor  Blot." 

*' Why  should  I  not?" 

"Why  should  you?" 

A  door  was  open,  as  the  missionaries  say,  and  I  walked  in. 

"  You  men — " 

"  Now  then.     All  hands  on  deck  !" 

"  From  time  immemorial  men  have  been  talking  about 
the  noble  art  of  cooking.  You  have  descanted  on  its  im- 
portance to  the  material  and  spiritual  interests  of  society. 
Without  a  knowledge  of  it,  a  love  for  it,  a  skill  in  it,  no  wom- 
an could  long  retain  her  husband's  love  or  the  sovereign- 
ty of  her  home.  The  education  that  omitted  it  was  but  a 
synonym  for  inadequacy,  not  to  say  uselessness.  If  a  girl 
could  not  bake  a  loaf  of  bread  or  boil  a  pudding,  she  was  a 

A2 


10  Woman's  lVo?'t/i 

failure,  however  lovely  or  accomplished.  You  have  wailed 
Jeremiades  over  female  ignorance,  and  then,  taking  heart 
of  disgrace,  you  have  broadened  out  into  Jeremiades  over 
American  ignorance  on  this  point.  You  have  set  against  it 
the  tact,  toothsomeness,  and  economy  of  the  French  kitch- 
en. In  short,  you  have  moralized  and  demoralized,  in  sea- 
son and  out  of  season,  and  all  to  no  purpose  ;  for  how  can 
people  learn  when  there  is  none  to  teach  ?  According  to 
your  own  showing,  we  are  a  nation  of  barbarians  in  all  that 
relates  to  the  cuisine ;  and  of  what  use  is  it  for  the  blind 
to  be  led  by  the  blind  .^  But  here  is  a  chance  for  you  to 
prove  your  sincerity.  Here  comes  a  high-priest  of  the  mys- 
tery. He  is  not  only  a  man,  but  a  Frenchman.  He  is  the 
exponent  of  the  highest  civilization  of  the  cooking-stove. 
We  may,  as  it  were,  lay  our  hands  upon  its  mane.  All  that 
is  known  we  may  know.  Stand  by  your  principles  now. 
Since  knowledge  comes,  do  not  let  wisdom  linger.  Elec- 
tioneer for  Professor  Blot.  Encourage  or  admonish  every 
woman  to  attend  his  lessons.  We  can  not  always  drink 
from  the  fountain-head  of  knowledge ;  but  when  the  foun- 
tain-head bubbles  up  at  our  own  door,  a  dollar  a  ticket,  what 
doth  hinder  that  we  drink  our  fill  ?" 

"  I  hinder.     I  forbid  the  bans." 

"  You  ?" 

"  Yes,  I.  In  the  name  of  my  domestic  peace,  which  is 
threatened,  I  protest." 

"Why,  herein  is  a  marvelous  thing." 

"  That  you  should  spoil  a  horn  in  the  futile  ambition  to 
make  a  spoon  ?" 

"But  the  horn  is  good  for  nothing." 

"  That  is  the  beauty  of  it.  Your  great  charm  is  that  you 
are  of  no  use.  Your  ignorance  of  every  thing  which  no 
gentleman's  library  should  be  without  is  truly  appetizing. 
One  never  knows  where  your  absurdity  will  crop  out  next ; 


and  Worthlessness.  n 

curiosity  is,  therefore,  always  on  tip-toe,  and  life  worth  living. 
Now  go  and  make  yourself  a  useful  member  of  society,  and 
you  will  spoil  the  whole.  Useful  members  of  society  are  al- 
ready as  the  frogs  of  Egypt  for  multitude.  Do  \iQ\.you  turr? 
into  one !" 

"  But  the  true  woman,  my  dear — " 

"  Hold  your  tongue,  my  dear.  If  you  are  dissatisfied  with 
your  place,  and  wish  to  hire  out  as  cook  in  a  genteel  fami- 
ly, I  will  give  you  a  character ;  but  if  you  wish  to  live  a  ra- 
tional life,  pray  you  keep  clear  of  all  these  utilities.  A  hard 
fate  thrusts  them  upon  some  of  our  fellow-mortals;  but 
Heaven  has  mercifully  exempted  you,  and  has  given  you, 
moreover,  a  rare  advantage  by  endowing  you  with  a  brilliant 
inaptitude  for  every  thing  useful.  Any  body  can  do  every 
thing  j  but  for  doing  nothing,  and  doing  it  with  ingenuity,  I 
don't  know  your  equal.  The  consequence  is  that  you  are, 
if  not  always  an  agreeable,  at  least  an  available  companion. 
One  is  sure  of  you.  But  go  and  waste  your  substance  in 
riotous  living  under  Professor  Blot's  management,  and  the 
spell  is  broken.  You  will  be  forever  having  an  eye  on  the 
larder.  You  will  be  greedy  of  receipts,  and,  instead  of  eat- 
ing your  meat  with  gladness  and  singleness  of  heart,  you 
will  be  fretting  about  the  way  it  is  cooked.  For  Heaven's 
sake,  my  dear,  spare  my  old  age  this  pang,  and  let  us  trust 
to  Providence  for  the  few  years  that  remain." 

Providence  has  done  well  by  us,  it  must  be  confessed. 
When  we  set  up  housekeeping  we  did  it  under  the  auspices 
of  a  sweet,  gentle,  innocent  widow  just  out  of  the  House 
of  Correction,  who  recorded  her  vow  that  she  never  would 
drink  again,  and  in  a  spasm  of  benevolence  we  took  her 
in.  Unfortunately,  we  soon  began  to  suspect  that  her  res- 
olution was  more  comprehensive  than  at  first  appeared. 
She  had  apparently  resolved  not  only  that  she  would  never 
drink  again,  but  that  she  would  never  eaty  nor  be  the  cause 


12  Womafi's  Worth 

of  eating  in  others.  Her  supplies  were  of  the  scantiest. 
The  whole  house  had  a  gaunt  look.  Even  the  cat  moaned 
in  her  sleep.  Our  pretty  widow  was  gentle.  She  was  sweet. 
She  was  sensitive.  But  we  were  starving,  and  she  had  to  go. 
Next  came  Miss  Gilbert's  career.  Miss  Gilbert  was  pro- 
foundly respectable  and  highly  recommended ;  but  wages 
were  not  her  object  so  much  as  a  situation  in  a  pious  fam- 
ily. I  would  have  preferred  to  pay  wages.  Unhappily,  piety 
never  was  the  strong  point  in  our  family.  I  was  not  uneasy 
about  myself,  but  I  felt  that  I  could  not  answer  for  my  friend. 
He  maintains  that  if  a  man  is  just,  cheerful,  helpful,  and 
good-tempered,  his  fellow-man  has  no  right  to  demand  any 
further  proof  of  his  religion.  All  the  rest  lies  between  the 
soul  and  its  Maker.  He  thinks  that  while  promiscuous  re- 
ligious talk  is  not  absolutely  incompatible  with  religion,  it  is 
a  strong  indication  of  its  presence  in  microscopic  projDor- 
tions,  if  not  its  entire  absence,  and  that  exactly  in  corre- 
spondence with  the  depths  of  one's  inner  experience  is  re- 
luctance to  display  it  indiscriminately.  I  need  not  say  that 
in  these  extraordinary  whims  he  receives  no  countenance 
from  me.  So  far  as  talking  is  a  test  of  piety,  I  trust  I  shall 
never  be  found  wanting.  On  the  strength  of  my  virtue,  I 
ventured  to  introduce  Miss  Gilbert  upon  the  scene.  She 
was  a  stirring,  energetic  woman,  and  what  is  called  in  some 
quarters  an  active  Christian,  and  we  could  make  but  little 
headway  against  her.  The  momentum  with  which  she  went 
to  evening  meetings  was  appalling.  We  creep  out  to  even- 
ing meetings  ourselves  sometimes  after  a  modest  sort,  but 
with  her  it  was  a  crusade.  The  thaws  of  the  opening  spring 
working  on  country  roads  had  no  terror  for  her.  The  deep- 
er the  mire,  the  hotter  her  zeal.  She  seemed  to  think  there 
was  a  virtue  in  floundering  through  these  sloughs  of  de- 
spond. The  sprinklings  and  splashings  of  mud  stood  her 
for  a  sort  of  baptismal  regeneration.     She  made  no  scruple 


and  IVorihkssness.  13 

of  letting  us  know  that  she  considered  us  cold  and  dead,  ec- 
clesiastically speaking.  In  fact,  her  piety  was  so  highly  fla- 
vored that  I  thought  Hassan  would  have  stoned  her,  and  I 
bowed  her  out  of  the  house.  She  was  an  excellent  woman, 
and  we  would  contribute  liberally  toward  sending  her  on  a 
mission  to  the  Cannibal  Islands. 

Norah  appeared  next — happy  Norali — who  came  confi- 
dently asserting  that  she  could  do  all  sorts  of  work.  Could 
she  cook  ?  No.  That  was  one  accomplishment  she  missed, 
but  she  could  do  every  thing  else  ;  and  cooking — she  pro- 
nounced the  00  like  00  in  boot — coooooking  she  could  learn. 
Norah's  crowning  fault — and  faults  she  had  like  Caroline 
Helstone's  curls,  in  picturesque  profusion — but  her  master- 
piece was  ingenuity ;  a  too  vivid  imagination.  She  impro-" 
vised  blunders  with  far  more  ease  and  rapidity  than  we 
could  counteract  them.  We  tried  to  head  her  off,  as  farm- 
ers say  of  their  cattle ;  to  let  conjecture  run  on  before,  and 
ascertain  and  prevent  the  mischief  she  would  determine,  but 
to  no  purpose.  Her  fertile  brain  outstripped  us  all.  Who 
can  keep  pace  with  a  mind  that  douses  the  spider,  crock  and 
all,  into  the  dish-water  every  time  it  is  to  be  washed  ?  Fare- 
well, Norah !  Fare  well  if  you  can,  oh  families  who  in  all 
coming  time  shall  give  your  household  gods  into  her  keep- 
ing !  credulous  families  who  open  your  hearts  to  her  latest 
declaration  that  she  is  a  good  plain  cook !  A  fine  girl 
was  Norah,  red-cheeked,  brawny-armed,  never  sulky,  with  a 
shoulder  for  every  wheel,  but  inscrutable  in  all  her  ways. 

How  shall  I  speak  of  Rushy — Rushy  the  imperturbable  ; 
the  innocent  child  who  came  to  us  in  tatters;  a  little  neg- 
lected waif,  receiving  every  fate  with  a  sublime  serenity  that 
might  have  sprung  from  fortitude  or  from  insensibility.  She 
never  told  her  love  or  hate,  but  took  praise  or  censure  with 
equal  immobility,  smiling  as  brightly  and  chatting  as  brisk- 
ly after  the  one  as  after  the  other.     She  was  formed  for  lit- 


14  Woman's  Worth 

erature  and  society.  Her  mind  was  superficial  and  un- 
trained, but  active  and  intense.  She  fastened  upon  novels, 
newspapers,  magazines,  and  memoirs  with  the  avidity  of 
famine.  She  waited  at  table  a?i'eifis  auribus.  She  compli- 
mented the  entertaining  guest  by  pausing  midway  between 
table  and  door,  dish  in  hand,  head  turned,  mouth  open,  eyes 
fixed  upon  him,  unable  to  leave  the  room  till  she  had  heard 
his  sentence  out.  She  washed  dishes  with  a  slow  circular 
sweep,  her  face  over  her  shoulder  to  catch  every  movement 
going  on  outside.  And,  notwithstanding  her  leisurely  mo- 
tion, she  touched  nothing  which  she  did  not  tear.  Her  own 
dress  was  a  curious  freak  of  cohesion.  The  skirt  was  rip- 
ped till  it  hung  in  festoons  from  the  waist ;  and  we  amused 
ourselves  by  computing  the  number  of  miles  of  torn  cloth 
that  would  be  amassed  by  one  who  should  collect  her  rents. 
But  she,  in  her  great  content,  never  seemed  conscious  that 
her  gown  was  torn,  and  when  the  fact  was  forced  upon  her 
from  without,  she  darned,  and  patched,  and  botched  after  a 
random  zigzag  sort  exquisitely  painful  to  the  average  New 
England  mind.  She  washed  floors  to  some  merry  mental 
tune  that  sent  the  soap-suds  dancing  up  the  mop-board  and 
the  wall-paper  in  the  liveliest  manner  imaginable.  She 
leaned  out  of  the  window  with  the  utmost  nonchalance  at 
important  culinary  crises,  balancing  herself  on  the  sill,  and 
accosting  the  boys  of  her  acquaintance  with  unaffected  can- 
dor and  simple  good-will.  We  loved  Rushy.  As  a  study, 
she  was  invaluable.  In  good  nature,  she  was  inexhaustible. 
Alas !  so  were  not  her  employers,  and  we  parted. 

Through  friendly  intervention  succeeded  then  a  brief  in- 
terregnum, during  which,  we  had  recourse  to  advertisements 
— not  making,  but  answering  them.  Ever  before  our  eyes 
flitted  some  ideal  Scotch,  German,  or  English  girl,  faithful, 
friendly,  efficient ;  such  a  servant  as  one  so  often  meets  in 
stories  of  English  country  houses  ;  but  they  never  appeared 


and  Worihkssness.  15 

in  the  advertising  columns.  Each  morning,  as  we  opened 
the  daily  paper,  hope  sprang  eternal  in  the  human  breast, 
but  only  to  spring  back  again.  There  was  no  lack  of  wom- 
en— middle-aged  women,  widows  of  twenty-five,  twenty-eight, 
thirty ;  young  widows,  ladies  of  refinement,  ladies  of  culture, 
ladies  who  wanted  situations  in  a  small  family  ;  housekeep- 
ers, to  whom  a  good  home  was  more  an  object  than  high 
wages — but  they  were  sure  to  end  with  the  fatal  words, 
"Widower  preferred."  Fatal  to  us,  for  neither  my  friend 
nor  myself  was  a  widower,  and  we  knew  no  legal  way  of  be- 
coming so.  It  was  one  of  those  arbitrary  and  unjust  dis- 
qualifications which,  like  sex  or  color  in  the  question  of  suf- 
frage, no  merit  can  remove.  Remonstrance  was  useless ; 
remedy  there  was  none ;  what  could  we  do  in  a  market 
where  the  demand  for  widowers  was  always  brisk  ?  I  asked 
my  friend  why  he  supposed  that  class  of  employers  was  so 
attractive.  He  replied  that  it  was  probably  owing  to  the 
combined  influence  of  lovely  woman  and  grief.  Man  in  his 
native  state,  he  observed,  was  a  wild  animal.  Lassoed, 
tamed,  and  trained  by  his  wife,  he  became  a  useful  domestic 
beast,  but  at  the  cost  of  his  trainer,  who  sank  under  the  ar- 
duousness  of  the  task.  Grief  for  her  loss  still  farther  sub- 
dued and  chastened  him,  rendering  the  soil,  as  it  were,  mel- 
low, and  fit  for  cultivation  ;  so  that  a  man  who  had  loved 
and  lost  was  more  malleable — to  change  the  figure  again — 
than  he  who  had  never  loved  at  all. 

Very  just  reasoning,  I  admitted  ;  and  added  farther  that 
in  him  who  had  loved  and  lost  was  this  advantage  over  him 
■who  had  loved  and  not  lost.  She  who  goes  to  the  latter 
finds  another  woman  in  the  case.  This  woman,  this  living 
wife,  while  she  does  not  make  the  pies,  is  yet  constantly  put- 
ting a  finger  in  them,  which  is  worse.  And  a  man  is  a  great 
deal  easier  for  a  housekeeper  to  get  on  with  than  a  v/oman. 
He  has  not  eyes  for  every  crumb  on  the  carpet,  every  roll 


1 6  Wo?nan's  Worth 

of  lint  under  the  stove,  every  layer  of  dust  behind  the  sofa, 
every  stain  on  the  spoons,  every  waste  in  the  pantry.  He 
never  knows  exactly  how  far  a  cup  of  sugar  will  go,  or  how 
much  twelve  and  a  half  cents  will  buy.  If  he  is  only  fed 
and  starched  in  a  general  way,  he  never  suspects  any  thing 
is  the  matter.  Yes,  I  do  not  wonder  that  widowers  are  pre- 
ferred.    I  should  prefer  them  myself 

Still  we  went  on  wildly  answering  advertisements,  stating 
our  requirements  and  appliances  in  such  terms  as  might 
seem  seducing  to  the  advertising  mind,  till  I  think  there  can 
hardly  be  a  corner  of  this  great  republic  to  which  our  house- 
hold belongings  (so  many  stories,  so  many  rooms,  furnace 
in  the  cellar,  chimney  that  does  not  smoke,  sunshine  in  the 
kitchen  all  day,  pump  in  the  sink,  six  hens  and  a  cat — I 
know  it  like  the  multiplication  table)  have  not  penetrated. 
But  to  no  purpose.  Once  we  thought  we  had  caught  her. 
A  woman  appeared  without  any  patent  predilections  for 
widowers.  We  sent  our  six  hens  and  a  cat  after  her  by  the 
next  mail.  We  never  heard  from  them  again  ;  but  on  the 
following  day  the  advertisement  appeared  with  the  append- 
ed condition  that  she  wished  a  situation  in  a  genteel  family ! 
This  was  the  most  unkindest  cut  of  all,  and  we  ceased  to 
haunt  the  journals. 

For  we  went  into  the  kitchen  ourselves.  I  say  we^  for 
my  friend  had  small  faith  in  my  unassisted  reason.  I  would 
have  preferred  to  be  alone.  When  you  are  trying  experi- 
ments, or  meditating  doubtful  devices,  or  balancing  between 
opposing  systems,  few  things  are  more  disturbing  than  a  by- 
stander, an  over-see-er.  I  would  have  liked  to  order  him 
out  of  the  kitchen ;  but  he  had  so  much  at  stake  in  the 
result,  and  I  knew  so  little  of  the  processes,  that  the  meas- 
ure seemed  hardly  justifiable.  It  promised  to  be,  on  the 
whole,  more  satisfactory  to  give  him  a  retainer,  as  you  might 
say,  and  take  it  out  in  having  him  handy  to  lay  the  blame 


ajid  IVorthlessness.  17 

of  the  failures  on,  particularly  as  he  was  enjoying  a  short 
space  of  leisure,  and  it  would  not  be  possible  to  keep  him 
off. 

Should  any  person  read  this  on  whose  hands  time  hangs 
heavily,  who  seems  to  himself  to  have  exhausted  the  re- 
sources of  interest,  let  me  respectfully  invite  him  to  repair 
to  his  own  kitchen,  and  attempt,  as  our  late  beloved  Presi- 
dent used  to  say,  to  run  the  machine.  He  will,  as  the  poet 
sings,  feel  himself  new-born.  He  is  the  centre  of  a  nev/ 
order  of  things.  Bread  and  beef,  which  have  always  been 
to  him  a  momentary  and  disconnected  fact,  suddenly  take 
on  a  history  that  stretches  back  into  a  remote  and  thrilling 
past.  The  savory  steak  of  the  breakfast-table,  which  he  was 
wont  to  consider  a  self-evident  proposition,  represents  only 
the  last  step  of  a  long  process  of  thought,  is  the  crowning 
close  of  a  series  of  scientific  experiments.  At  the  same 
time,  nothing  more  forcibly  strikes  the  contemplative  mind 
than  the  uncertainties  of  the  kitchen.  You  are  constantly 
surprised  to  learn,  from  painful  observation,  that  like  causes 
do  not  produce  like  results.  Mathematics  and  chemistry 
are  fallacious.  I  remembered  some  delicious  rye  muffins  I 
had  once  eaten  in  a  friend's  house.  I  sent  for  the  receipt. 
I  followed  it — one  pint  of  sour  milk,  one  pint  of  rye  flour, 
eggs,  and  such  things.  What  happened  ?  Plump,  light  puffs 
of  muffins  such  as  I  had  eaten  in  a  foreign  clime  ?  No.  A 
panful  of  little,  flat,  wrinkled,  shrunken,  and  still  shrinking 
dabs,  which,  on  opening,  proved  to  have  been  transmuted 
into  rye  hasty-pudding.  Withered  old  crones  without,  molt- 
en lava  within.  I  scalded  my  mouth  trying  to  swallow  one 
or  two  of  the  worst  ones  out  of  the  way  before  my  friend 
came  down.  There  were  some  pretty  bad  ones  left.  Has- 
san is  a  good-natured  creature,  and  he  grappled  with  them 
manfully,  but  he  did  not  seem  to  make  much  impression  on 
the  plateful.     I  told  him  I  was  sure  he  could  eat  more  if  he 


1 8  Wommi's  Wo?'th 

would  give  his  mind  to  it — ^just  set  up  a  little  resolution  ;  but 
he  said  he  had  made  a  remarkably  good  dinner  at  the  Farm- 
er's Club  the  week  before,  and  really  was  not  hungry.  Aft- 
erward I  recollected  that  I  had  left  out  the  eggs ;  but  it 
would  have  made  no  difference  if  I  had  put  them  in.  There 
needs  something  more  than  eggs  to  heal  the  breach  between 
a  muffin  and  a  volcano.  Drop- cakes  were  next  tried.  Drop- 
cakes  are  a  household  word  in  our  clan.  The  memory  of 
the  oldest  inhabitant  does  not  go  back  to  a  time  when  drop- 
cakes  were  not  a  familiar  friend,  and  I  knew  all  about  them 
— molasses,  and  rye  meal,  and  flour,  and  so  forth,  and  dip 
your  hands  in  warm  water  before  you  make  it  up  into  cakes. 
I  did  every  thing  precisely  in  the  appointed  way,  and  the 
mess  runs  through  your  fingers  faster  than  you  can  take  it 
up.  Unstable  as  water.  I  stood  in  despair  contemplating 
my  ten  outstretched  fingers,  daubed  and  draped  with  em- 
bryo drop-cake,  and  looking  for  all  the  world  like  web-feet. 
"  Spoon  it  out,"  said  Hassan,  laconically  ;  and  I  spooned  it 
into  the  pan,  making  a  collective  noun  of  it  instead  of  the 
regular  plural,  which  was  its  legitimate  character.  After 
ten  minutes  in  the  oven,  it  had  not  changed  a  shade.  I  at- 
tempted to  turn  it,  in  order  to  get  it  into  a  hotter  part  of  the 
oven,  and  perhaps  I  tipped  it  the  least  in  life,  as  the  best  of 
cooks  might,  when  out  flopped  near  half  of  it,  rolling  down 
the  stove  to  the  floor.  Hassan  brightened  up  visibly,  and 
said  it  was  rightly  named  ;  there  would  be  plenty  of  it  left. 
When  we  came  to  eat  it  we  found  there  was.  Perhaps  I  had 
forgotten  the  proportions,  but  the  ingredients  were  correct. 
Determining  to  remember  both  next  time,  I  studied  the  re- 
ceipt for  Indian  cake  till  I  had  learned  it  by  heart.  It  col- 
ored my  dreams.  I  used  to  wake  up  in  the  night  repeating 
it — one  cup  of  flour,  two  cups  of  Indian  meal,  four  table- 
spoonfuls  of  cream,  one  table-spoonful  of  sugar,  four  table- 
spoonfuls  of  flour,  two  cups  of  cream,  one  cup  of  flour,  and 


and  Worthlessness.  19 

forth  came  a  flat,  rough,  unrisen  cake,  cracked  in  every  di- 
rection, and  ridged,  and  hard — it  was  like  eating  raw  corn. 

"  Suppose  we  forswear  these  side-issues,  and  try  regular 
bread,"  said  my  friend. 

But  we  were  no  better  off.  We  had  a  written  receipt,  word 
for  word.  Every  thing  was  timed  and  measured  with  astro- 
nomical exactness.  Begin  at  noon  with  yeast  and  water. 
Then  yeast,  and  flour,  and  water,  and  rise  till  night.  Then 
more  flour  and  water,  and  rise  till  morning.  Then  knead 
and  bake.  This  in  general ;  but  the  particulars  filled  three 
pages  of  a  sheet,  which  I  pinned  to  the  kitchen  clock  above 
the  kitchen  table,  and  prepared  to  follow  slavishly.  I  did 
follow  slavishly  till  the  ingredients  balked.  The  very  first 
installment  of  flour  and  water  refused  to  rise.  Night  set  in 
on  a  contumacious  sponge  that  was  not  all  a  sponge.  Per- 
haps it  had  risen  the  thousandth  part  of  an  inch.  No  one 
could  affirm  it  had  risen  at  all.  It  looked  a  little  scaly  at 
the  top,  and  that  was  the  sole  sign  of  activity.  It  stood  till 
morning.  Still  it  groveled.  We  both  eyed  it  in  silence  ;  I 
stuck  a  knife  in.  The  flour  seemed  to  have  settled,  and 
there  was  a  layer  of  water  above  it. 

"  That,  I  take  it,"  said  my  friend,  "  is  a  very  good  illustra- 
tion of  the  figure  which  our  earth  made  before  the  third  day 
— before  the  waters  under  the  heaven  were  gathered  togeth- 
er into  one  place,  and  the  dry  land  appeared.  Life  is  only  a 
wheel  within  a  wheel.  Every  macrocosm  has  its  micro- 
cosm." 

I  was  very  sure,  I  said,  that  there  was  such  a  thing  as 
bread  griddle- cakes. 

"What  man  has  done  man  may  do,"  he  rejoined,  solemn- 
ly. "  If  you  can  make  griddle-cakes  out  of  that  muddle, 
you  had  better  do  it  at  once,  for  nothing  short  of  divine  de- 
crees could  evolve  bread." 

"  I  wonder  how  griddle-cakes  are  made,"  I  half  solilo- 
quized. 


20  Wo7na?i^s  Worth 

"With  yeast-cakes  that  will  not  up." 

"  But  how  to  cook  them  ?  They  are  not  baked,  I  imagine. 
Exactly." 

"  Humanly  speaking,  they  must  be  cooked  on  a  gridiron." 

"  Grid-griddle-cakes.  Gridiron.  Yes,  if  there  is  any  thing 
in  etymology." 

The  gridiron  always  hung  by  the  stove.  I  took  it  down 
and  surveyed  it. 

"What  is  going  to  prevent  the  dough  from  dropping 
through  the  bars  ?" 

"  What  prevents  the  flame  from  getting  through  the  wire 
netting  of  Sir  Humphry  Davy's  safety-lamp  ?" 

"The  interstices  are  very  much  smaller  than  these." 

"  So  are  the  particles  of  flame  very  much  smaller  than 
those  of  dough.  Here  is  the  formula.  As  fire  is  to  unleav- 
ened bread,  so  is  Sir  Humphry's  lamp  to  a  gridiron.  Let 
us  have  it  mathematically,"  and  he  whipped  out  pencil  and 
paper. 

"  Fire  :  W.  B. :  :  S.  L.  :  Grid.  There.  What  can  one  ask 
more  in  a  world  of  uncertainty  ?" 

"  My  dear,  Euclid  himself  would  never  convince  me  that  a 
griddle-cake  could  be  baked  on  a  gridiron.  You  run  up 
stairs  and  bring  me  down  the  Unabridged.  A  sudden  heat 
might  form  a  sudden  crust,  but  nothing  can  prevent  the  sur- 
face from  being  ridged,  since  it  would  not  reach  the  heat  till 
it  had  fallen  through  on  the  stove  ;  and  if  it  were  ridged,  it 
would  be  a  waffle,  and  no  griddle-cake." 

"  Gridl-ron  (i-run),"  he  came  down  reading  from  the  big 
dictionary  in  his  hands,  "  [W.  greidiaw ;  It.  greadaim,  to 
heat,  scorch  (just  as  I  said,  my  dear),  roast,  and  irojt.  See 
Griddle.]" 

"  There  !  now  see  griddle." 

"  Griddle.  Griddle — oh  !  yes.  Griddle  is  the  fellow. 
W.  greidell^  from  greidiaw ^  to  heat,  singe,  scorch.     A  pan, 


and  Worthlessness.  21 

broad  and  shallow,  for  baking  cakes.  So  much  for  going 
to  head-quarters." 

"  Oh  !  and  a  handle  to  it.  I  have  seen  it  dozens  of  times, 
only  I  did  not  know  it  was  a  griddle.  Now,  where  have 
I  seen  it  ?  We  must  just  hunt  it  up,  and  the  problem  is 
solved." 

But  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  hunt  it  up.  I  looked  every 
where  I  could  think  of.  So  did  my  friend ;  but  as  he  only, 
looked  where  I  had  gone  before,  he  did  not  forward  matters 
much. 

"  Now,"  said  the  calmer  of  the  two,  at  length,  sitting  down 
with  a  philosophical  air  that  was  akin  to  despair, "  what  is 
the  use  of  going  about  in  this  random  sort  of  way  ?  When 
Leverrier  had  a  planet  to  discover,  he  did  not  jerk  his  tele- 
scope all  over  the  sky  at  once.  He  calculated  where  it 
ought  to  be,  and  then  found  it  quietly." 

"  Certainly,"  said  my  friend  ;  "  let  us  evolve  from  our  mor- 
al consciousness  the  natural  habitat  of  griddles,  and  then 
push  our  researches  in  that  field.  To  begin  by  exclusion,  it 
would  not  be  in  the  china-closet  ?" 

But  just  then  I  happened  to  catch  sight  of  it  on  the  nail 
where  I  suppose  it  had  hung  for  generations,  and  we  made 
the  griddle-cakes.  I  draw  a  curtain  over  the  scene  that  fol- 
lowed. 

"  I  am  afraid,"  says  Hassan,  carelessly  fingering  my  pa- 
pers, "  that  you  are  putting  too  fine  a  point  on  it.  You  will 
be  considered  as  drawing  a  long  bow.  No  one  will  think  it 
possible  for  a  New  Englander  to  attain  to  this  state  of  hea- 
then ignorance  even  by  trying." 

"  I  am  glad  of  it,"  I  answered.  "  We  hear  of  people  who 
have  so  strong  a  love  for  falsehood  that  they  would  rather 
lie  on  a  twelve-months'  note  than  tell  the  truth  for  cash,  and 
I  suppose  you  think  I  shall  come  into  that  class.  But,  on 
the  contrary,  it  only  shows  that  one  may  know  so  much  that 


22  Woman's  Worth 

he  will  not  be  believed  even  when  he  confesses  ignorance. 
See  the  virtue  of  a  good  reputation  !" 

Women,  so  far  as  they  have  come  under  my  observation, 
have  little  skill  in  teaching  the  art  of  cooking,  even  when 
they  can  practice  it  with  very  admirable  results.  Their  di- 
rections are  confused  and  contradictory,  vague  and  inade- 
quate. They  begin,  perhaps,  intelligibly  enough,  but  at  the 
critical  point  you  put  a  vital  question,  and  are  told,  "  Oh ! 
you  must  go  by  your  own  judgment."  They  apparently  do 
not  know,  or  do  not  remember,  that  judgment  is  the  result 
of  knowledge,  and  that  the  very  reason  why  you  have  re- 
course to  them  is  that  you  have  no  judgment  to  go  by.  Or 
they  will  give  you  a  detailed  and  elaborate  receipt,  which  you 
painfully  transfer  to  your  note-book,  and  are  smitten  with 
consternation  and  despair  by  the  closing  remark,  uttered  as 
coolly  as  if  it  did  not  deal  the  death-blow  to  your  hopes, 
"  But,  after  all,  every  thing  depends  on  the  bake  !" 

To  be  sure,  the  inexperienced  craft  generally  strikes  a 
snag  before  reaching  the  baking  point ;  but  of  what  avail,  I 
ask,  is  the  nice  selection  of  ingredients,  and  the  nice  adjust- 
ment of  quantities,  if  selection  and  adjustment  are  alike  lia- 
ble at  the  last  moment  to  be  baffled  by  the  "  bake  ?"  All 
the  juice  has  oozed  out  of  your  mince-pies,  giving  you  a 
kitchen  odorous  of  spices,  but  leaving  you  only  the  ghost  of 
your  Thanksgiving  pies,  because  you  had  "too  quick  an 
oven  ;"  while  your  sponge-cake  hollows  itself  into  an  ocean- 
bed  of  heaviness  because  you  had  "  too  slow  an  oven."  But 
how  can  you  stay  in  an  oven  long  enough  to  find  out  wheth- 
er it  be  quick  or  slow ;  and  who  shall  draw  the  line  between 
quickness  and  slowness?  You  presently  learn  the  exist- 
ence of  the  difference,  for  the  quick  oven  scorches  and 
spoils  its  prey,  and  the  slow  oven  depresses  and  demoral- 
izes it ;  but  the  knowledge  comes  too  late,  and  wisdom  lin- 
gers.    Why  do  we  not  have  thermometers  connected  with 


and  Worthies  sues  s.  23 

our  ovens,  and  reduce  a  snap  judgment  to  a  mathematical 
certainty  ? 

Let  me  put  forth  suggestions  with  caution,  for  our  own 
stove  is  a  victim  to  misdirected  ingenuity.  The  damper 
stuck  a  Httle,  and  my  friend  Hassan,  who  believes  nothing 
human  to  be  foreign  to  himself,  worked  upon  it  till  it  stuck 
fast,  and  we  had  to  take  out  the  funnel  whenever  we  wished 
to  turn  the  damper — which  was  not  a  modern  improvement. 
Then  the  blacksmith  came  and  mended  it;  but  Hassan 
could  not  let  well  enough  alone.  I  heard  a  clanking  of 
chains  one  morning,  as  if  Sing  Sing  had  been  let  loose  upon 
us.  It  was  Hassan  leading  in  a  man  with  a  string  of  damp- 
ers on  his  arm — a  new  invention  ;  something  that  was  to  dif- 
fuse the  airs  of  Paradise  through  the  whole  house.  The 
stove  drew  perfectly  at  the  time.  It  had  a  damper  simple 
of  construction  and  manageable  by  a  child,  but  because,  far 
back  in  the  pluperfect  tense,  there  had  been  a  slight  im- 
pediment in  its  speech,  this  elaborate  machine  was  to  be 
introduced  into  our  artless  old  funnel.  Wondrous  feats 
were  promised.  It  was  going  to  send  the  flame  here  and 
the  smoke  there,  the  heat  round  a  corner,  and  the  smells  up 
chimney.  It  was  put  in,  and  would,  I  dare  say,  have  been 
harmless  enough,  if  it  could  have  been  let  alone  ;  but  an  in- 
genious hand  was  constantly  twiddling  it,  by  way  of  experi- 
ment, and  filling  the  room  with  smoke.  One  day,  when  I 
had  the  field  to  myself,  I  hired  the  blacksmith  to  take  out 
the  damper,  leaving  the  handle  in.  It  answered  admirably. 
My  friend  twiddled  on,  amusing  himself,  and  inconvenien- 
cing no  one. 


24  Woman'' s  Worth 


II. 

THE  STATE  OF  [FRENCH]  GRACE. 

It  was  at  this  epoch  that  Professor  Blot  came  over  the 
horizon.  I  caught  at  him  with  the  gasp  and  grasp  of  the 
drowning.  Hassan,  as  I  have  said,  at  first  violently  op- 
posed any  recourse  to  him  ;  but,  supported  by  a  firm  faith 
in  my  inherent  and  inalienable  incapacity,  he  presently  with- 
drew his  opposition.  In  fact,  after  a  while,  he  rather  en- 
couraged the  Blot  scheme,  seeming  to  think  the  addition  of 
a  French  element  to  native  inaptitude  would  lend  it  a  pi- 
quancy which  it  had  hitherto  lacked. 

So  all  in  the  pleasant  summer  weather  I  went  to  town  to 
hear  Professor  Blot.  The  neighborhood  took  kindly  to  the 
adventure,  though  evidently  mistrustful  of  this  armed  inter- 
vention from  a  foreigner.  Every  face  that  saw  me  go  by 
wreathed  itself  in  smiles  ;  yet  in  the  calm  still  hour,  by  the 
moon's  pale  beams,  I  sometimes  question  whether  they  were 
not  in  part  smiles  of  incredulity.  "  Want  to  learn  how  to 
make  one  more  puddin'  !"  said  my  friend  the  forester, 
meeting  me  on  my  winding  way. 

"Can  this  Blot  fellow  tell  us  how  to  get  somethin'  to 
cook .?  that's  the  point,"  asked  my  friend  the  captain ;  but 
that  was  not  my  affair.  I  assisted  at  the  lectures  with  note- 
book and  spoon,  according  to  directions.  I  looked,  and  list- 
ened, and  tasted.  It  was  marvelous.  Every  thing  happen- 
ed. Nothing  failed.  Nothing  went  uncooked.  Nothing 
collapsed.  Nobody  was  anxious.  It  was  that  -plump,  j'olie 
French  cook.  She  gave  a  caressing  pat,  a  dextrous  dab, 
a  spirited  stir,  and  every  atom  melted  into  its  place  and 
became  a  viand.     Some   of  us  loftily  sheathed  ourselves 


and  Worthless7tess.  25 

in  nonchalance,  and  tasted  with  a  nil-admirari  air.  Should 
a  haughty  world  suppose  that  we  had  not  as  good  things  ev- 
ery day  at  home  ?  Others  of  us  were  crushed  to  the  dust, 
and  admired  indiscriminately.  A  woman  at  my  elbow  went 
into  raptures  over  the  joint  which  there  had  not  been  time 
completely  to  roast. 

"  Ugh !"  said  the  professor,  shrugging  his  shoulders  in 
disgust  \  "  that  ees  not  half  done  !"  I  was  vexed  that  she 
should  have  made  such  a  display  of  American  ignorance  to 
a  foreigner,  though  I  should  not  myself  have  known  it  was 
underdone  if  he  had  not  said  so  ;  and  I,  on  the  principle 
that  a  fault  confessed  is  half  atoned  for,  remarked,  depreca- 
tingly,  "Alas  !  we  are  such  barbarians  in  this  country  that 
we  don't  know  when  our  food  is  cooked  and  when  it  isn't." 

"Alas,  mees,"  responded  the  unhappy  professor,  "  that 
ees  too  true." 

I  did  not  expect  so  ready  and  unqualified  an  assent. 

One  could  but  pity  the  man  who  had  not  only  to  teach, 
but  create  a  public  opinion  to  receive  his  teachings ;  who 
had  not  only  to  concoct  his  viands,  but  to  train  our  palates 
to  appreciate  them.  I  concealed  my  ignorance  as  carefully 
as  possible  j  but  it  is  useless  to  deny  that  to  backwoods 
eyes  and  ears,  not  to  say  nose  and  mouth,  some  of  his 
modes  and  results  were  at  least  uncommon.  I  copied  with 
exemplary  docility  directions  to  pour  white  wine  on  chicken, 
but  I  saw  in  my  mind's  eye  the  demure  gravity  with  which 
my  neighbors  would  receive  such  an  announcement.  Un- 
resistingly I  chopped  up  mushrooms  with  every  other  dish  ; 
but  I  thought  of  my  friend  the  forester  swinging  his  axe  on 
the  strength  of  the  toad-stools  he  had  eaten,  and  I  fancied 
that  even  Hassan  would  suspend,  naso  adunco,  that  little 
bunch  of  see-sawn^jng  which  seemed  to  pepper  every  dish. 
But  I  yielded  to  no  misgivings,  and  carried  home  my  note- 
book in  triumph  at  the  close  of  the  lectures.     My  friend  dis- 

B 


26  Woman's  Worth 

played  a  languid  curiosity  as  to  my  opinion.  I  told  him  I 
thought  Professor  Blot  was  a  good  cook,  but  that  he  did  not 
understand  French.  At  least  his  pronunciation  was  differ- 
ent from  that  to  which  I  had  been  accustomed.  He  asked 
me  if  I  had  possessed  myself  of  the  general  principles  of 
cooking.  I  said  I  thought  I  had.  He  begged  me  to  repaat 
them.  I  replied  that  the  fundamental  requisite  to  good 
cooking  was  a  French  cook.  He  said  the  knowledge  of 
that  fact  alone  was  worth  the  whole  price  of  the  lectures. 
"  Go  on."  I  added,  "6"/  momimentum  quceris,  in  spice^''  and 
handed  him  my  note-book.  He  slowly  turned  the  leaves, 
held  the  book  right  side  up,  wrong  side  up,  and  diagonally 
in  succession,  and  asked  where  it  began.  I  answered,  on  a 
venture,  that  it  began  at  the  beginning,  of  course.  He  said 
a  man  would  have  to  stand  inside  a  mill-wheel  in  motion  to 
read  it.  I  was  obliged  to  admit  that  it  did  need  an  editor. 
There  was  a  great  quantity  of  valuable  material  in  an  undi- 
gested state,  with  an  inexhaustible  amount  of  bay  leaf  and 
garlic  scattered  through  it. 

"  It  begins  at  the  beginning,  does  it  ?"  said  my  friend. 
"Let  us,  then,  begin  there."  And  he  fastened  upon  the  in- 
side of  the  first  cover,  and  read,  in  a  monotonous,  inexpress- 
ive, unintelligent  tone, 

" '  Bay  leaf  at  druggist's. 

"  *  Every  dish  look  at  once  in  a  while  to  see  how  it  goes. 

"  '  Chicken  when  one  horn — '  " 

"  It  is  not  horn,"  I  interrupted. 

"What  is  it,  then  .?" passing  me  the  book, 

"It  looks  like  a  horn,"  I  said,  after  a  silent  contemplation, 
"but  it  must  mean  hour." 

He  read  on  : 

" '  Two  stalks  parsley  half  onion — 

"  *  Stuck  in  it. 

"  '  One  or  two  cloves  half  bay  leaf — 


and  Worthkssness.  27 

*  Skim  it'     Skim  what? 

"'Half  tea -spoonful  butter  h— ty  [Humpty-dumpty— I 
could  make  nothing  of  it  myself] — flour  mix  together  a  lit- 
tle juice  and  stir  to  melt  and  mix — take  off  onion  cloves  and 
bay  leaf— odd  mixture.'     I  should  think  it  was  1" 

"^^/^ mixture!"  I  explained. 

"  Add  what  mixture  ?" 

"  Why,  the  mixture  you  have  just  been  making  !" 

"  Add  it  to  what  ?" 

"  To  the  mixture  you  had  been  making  before  you  began 
this.     Why,  the  chicken  !" 

"'Little  lemon-juice — shake. 

"'One  yolk  with— no,  into— beaten — into  bestow— into 
vesture — '    What  is  that  word  ?" 

I  studied  it  attentively,  but  was  unable  to  decipher  it. 

"  Never  mind,"  I  said  ;  "  go  on." 

"Your  chicken  seems  to  have  come  to  an  end,  my  dear." 

"  Oh  no ;  there  must  be  more.  He  can't  end  in  that 
yolk." 

"  No  ;  he  more  naturally  begins  there.  Still,  if  I  were 
called  upon  to  pronounce  an  opinion  on  this  particular 
chicken,  I  should  say  that  by  the  time  he  reached  this  stage 
he  was  no  chicken !" 

In  hot  pursuit  of  the  missing  chicken  we  turned  page 
after  page,  but  the  only  vestige  of  his  creation  was  an  en- 
try of — 

i_i  £  I  Fricassee  chicken  entre'e. 

^  S  -I  Wash — put  in  toast-pan — ^just  cover  with  cold  water 
^  I      salt  cover  the  pan. 

This  certainly  was  not  the  original  fowl,  but  a  distinct  and 
subsequent  individual,  while  the  cabalistic  marginal  note 
was  quite  unintelligible.  There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to 
take  high  moral  ground  at  once,  and  assume  that  the  chick- 
en was  off  the  stage  before  the  yolk  was  brought  on.  That 
egg  was  broken  into  some  other  dish. 


28  Woman^s  Worth 

"  Yes,"  Hassan  said ;  "  that  last  shake  probably  finished 
him  prematurely.    What  next?" 

"To  explain  precisely  how  this  hop,  skip,  and  jump  came 
about.  In  the  beginning,  Professor  Blot  wrote  the  whole 
dinner  on  the  blackboard.  Then  he  cooked  it  on  the  range. 
We  had  consequently  to  make  history  and  to  write  history 
at  one  and  the  same  moment,  and  were  constantly  darting 
from  point  to  point.  When  it  was  time  to  put  salt  in  the 
pudding  he  made  a  note  of  it ;  and  immediately  there  was  a 
bay  leaf  to  be  stuck  in  an  onion,  and  we  turned  the  page 
and  made  a  note  of  that.  Then,  before  you  had  fairly  seen 
how  a  bay  leaf  would  look  in  an  onion,  you  were  directed  to 
put  butter  in  the  pudding ;  so  you  dropped  your  bay  leaf, 
and  turned  back  to  the  pudding  again.  Thus  you  were  kept 
ever  on  the  stretch.  Is  it  any  wonder  if  you  sometimes  fla- 
vored the  pudding-sauce  with  parsley,  or  scattered  sugar  on 
the  roast?  It  is  certainly  some  such  mistake  which  sent 
that  yolk  on  its  wanderings.  Find  now  a  definite  programme 
for  a  regular  dinner.  There  are  plenty  of  them.  Here  is 
one  that  looks  systematic.     Read  that  straight  through." 

" '  Riz  au  lait. 

" '  Fish  caper  sauce. 

" '  Beef  piquante  sauce. 

"  *  Croquettes.'    (A  game  dinner  certainly.) 

" '  Potatoes  a  la  Franyaise. 

" '  Plat  au  beurre. 

"  *  Petites  bouchees  a  la  creme. 

"  *  Pie.'  (How  that  one  little  English  word  shines  among 
all  these  foreign  folk,  like  a  good  deed  in  a  naughty  world !) 

"  *  Creme  patissiere.'    Is  that  all  ?" 

"  Now  you  will  find  a  page  devoted  to  each  one  of  these 
dishes.     Somewhere.     You  must  look  till  you  find  it." 

"  Sure  enough.     Here  is — 

"  *  Fish  caper  sauce.' 


a7id  Worthies sness.  29 

"  Let  us  see,  said  the  blind  man. 

"  *  Set  on  fire  just  cover  with  water — always  put  a  table-s 
vinegar  to  a  pound  of  (boil)  fish — salt  caper  sauce — \  table-s 
butter — same  flour — i  gill  warm  water  on  fire — stir  salt  and 
pepper  to  taste — a  little  water  in  which  fish  has  cooked — 
caper  in  sauce  just  before  serving.' 

"That  is  certainly  very  direct  and  intelligible.  I  like 
that — especially  capering  in  the  sauce.  It  reminds  one  of 
bucolics :  and  in  the  vats  of  Luna  this  year  the  must  shall 
foam  round  the  white  feet  of  laughing  girls.  A  New  En- 
gland housewife  dancing  in  the  fish-sauce  must  make  a 
sauce  piquante. 

"  'Potatoes  entremet  a  la  Franyaise  fillets.'  What  is  fil- 
lets?" 

"  Fillets  ?  Curl-papers  ?  It  has  a  familiar  sound,  but  I 
do  not  at  this  moment  recall  its  kitchen  range." 

"  Potatoes  in  curl-papers.     They  must  be  lady-fingers.'* 

"  There  was  something  in  curl-papers,  if  it  was  not  pota- 
toes. I  think  it  was  mutton-chops.  Read  on.  Perhaps 
the  sequel  will  show." 

"  Here,  again,  we  seem  to  come  to  an  untimely  end." 

I  instituted  a  personal  investigation,  but  could  discover 
no  clew.     The  thread  was  broken  off  short. 

"  When  I  was  in  the  middle  of  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing dishes — " 

"  Then  the  sauce  was  not  the  only  thing  you  capered  in  !" 

"  While  I  was  lost  in  contemplation  of  the  simmering  and 
steaming,  I  suddenly  awoke  to  the  fact  that  a  caterpillar  was 
creeping  over  my  dress.  I  struck  him  off  with  my  note-book 
into  the  aisle,  but  with  unparalleled  resolution  he  kept  con- 
stantly heading  my  way,  so  that  I  was  forced  to  divide  my 
already  overstrained  attention  between  tne  cooking  and  the 
caterpillar,  and  had  no  sooner  jotted  down  one  item  than 
I  dropped  pencil,  took  up  parasol,  and  poked  back  caterpil- 


3©  WomarCs  Worth 

lar.  I  assure  you  the  intense  mental  effort  gave  me  a  head- 
ache. Those  unfinished  potatoes  mark  the  spot  where  that 
caterpillar  thrust  his  head  in.  Every  gap  you  may  fill  up 
with  caterpillar." 

"  Charge  the  deficit,  then,  to  him.  Here  is  a  page  of 
what  seem  to  be  general  directions  : 

"  '  Never  use  soda  sal  c  of  t  c  pepper  (here)  parsley  for 
fish  and  chicken. 

"  '  Plants  easily  grown. 

"  '  Veal  must  be  overdone. 

"  'Broth — stir  again — spoonful  of  gravy. 

"  '  All  kinds  of  fat  strain — 

"  '  And  put  in  stone  jars.' 

"  This  is  somewhat  unintelligible  to  me,  but  I  suppose 
you  understand  it  ?" 

"  Y-e-s.  But  here  is  a  long,  fair  page,  that  looks  as  if  it 
would  run  smooth.  '  Broth  !'  That  is  an  important  matter. 
Professor  Blot  puts  broth  into  every  thing." 

"  '  Three  lbs.  lean  beef — must  be  fresh  never  more  than 
2  oz.  bones  with  lb.  meat — no  bones  best  put  it  in  soup-ket- 
tle or  sauce-pan — '  " 

I  could  not  help  interrupting  the  reading  to  announce  a 
discovery.  There  is  a  species  of  large  dipper  in  family  use. 
We  always  called  it  Ursa  Major.  It  was  interesting  to  learn 
from  Professor  Blot  that  it  was  a  sauce-pan.  One  is  famil- 
iar with  sauce-pans  in  literature,  but  it  is  delightful  to  know 
that  one  has  a  personal  acquaintance  with  them.  Ah  !  la 
belle  chose  que  de  savoir  quelque  chose  I 

But  when  I  defended  from  the  dictionary,  which  is  one  of 
our  most  important  kitchen  utensils,  my  life-long  impression 
that  all  pans  were  milk-pans,  broad  and  shallow,  and  that 
nothing  with  a  handle  could  properly  be  called  a  pan,  Has- 
san immediately  quoted  warming-pans  and  the  Panhandle 
of  geography  against  me  ! 


and  Worthkssness.  31 

*'  Go  on,"  I  said,  seeing  he  was  disposed  to  trifle. 

"  '  Cover  with  3  qts.  cold  water — set  on  good  fire  in  about 
\  hour  boil — then  remove  kettle  don't  boil  much — skim 
scum.'  (That  apt  alliteration's  artful  aid  reminds  me  of  a 
Magazine  story  named  '  Snip  Snap.')  '  If  it  has  boiled  un- 
aware  gill  cold  water  and  skin  \  middle-sized  carrot  \  as 
much  turnip  i  leek  small  onion  with  2  cloves  stuck  in  it  2 
stalks  parsley  i  celery  i  bay  leaf  salt  and  pepper  keep  sim- 
ming — '  " 

"  Simmering,"  I  corrected  under  my  breath,  too  much 
pleased  at  so  long  a  run  of  smooth  sailing  to  break  it  for 
any  slight  deviition. 

"  '  For  5  hours— no  boil  for  rich  broth  have  2  qts.  water 
poor  2  qts.'  " 

"  You  have  not  read  that  right.  It  can  not  be  two  quarts 
for  both  rich  broth  and  poor." 

"  Look  before  you  leap  to  such  a  conclusion." 

"  It  was  the  caterpillar,"  I  said,  after  a  prolonged  exam- 
ination. 

"That  is  the  most  responsible  caterpillar  that  ever 
crawled.     Well — 

" '  Two  qts.  water — no  fat — no  bones  must  be  clean.' 
How  is  that  ?" 

"  My  dear,  you  punctuate  with  your  elbows." 

"  My  dear,  I  follow  your  punctuation  to  the  letter,  to  the 
smallest  Abyssinian  quirk." 

"  But  can  you  not  see  that,  weary  and  worn,  not  to  say 
saturated  and  suffocated  with  savors,  one's  brain  might  be- 
come a  little  muddled ;  and  can  not  you  bring  your  reason 
to  the  aid  of  your  eyes  ;  and  does  it  not  stand  to  reason  that 
bones  must  be  clean  for  soup,  and  that  there  must  not  be 
any  bones  ?" 

"  Nothing  easier.  Hereafter,  then,  I  follow  my  unassist 
cd  reason  in  punctuating  your  bones. 


$2  Woman's  Worth 

"  '  Take  off  meat — put  bottom  paste  for  pie  4  oz.  flour 
and  knead  with  2  oz.  butter — knead — '  " 

"You  are  surely  off  the  track  again." 

"Not  in  the  least." 

"  Is  there  no  dividing-line  ?" 

"If  there  is,  it  is  equatorial  and  invisible." 

"  But  do  you  not  see  that  you  have  suddenly  emerged 
from  the  broth,  and  fallen  plump  into  a  pan  of  pastry  ?" 

"  There  is  no  way,"  he  replied,  slowly  turning  the  leaves, 
and  looking  up  and  down  the  pages  with  great  solemnity — 
"  there  is  no  way  out  of  that  broth  except  plumping  into  the 
flour  and  butter." 

Alas !  it  was,  as  Professor  Blot  remarked,  "  too  true." 
After  "  put"  came  "  bottom  paste  ;"  and  the  page  went  on 
from  bad  to  worse  in  this  random  fashion  : 

"  In  crockery — 

"  Longer  it  keeps,  always  put — 

"  The  quicker  you  cool  it  the — 

"Then  strain  the  broth  and  done." 

Hassan  suggested  that  it  might  be  read  like  Hebrew,  from 
right  to  left.  He  builded  better  than  he  knew,  for  by  read- 
ing it  from  bottom  to  top  it  was  easy  to  unearth  the  mean- 
ing. Some  sudden  emergency  had  deranged  the  ordinary 
stratification,  and  interjected  the  trap  rock  of  the  pastry-pan. 
Farther  explanation  it  was  impossible  to  give.  However^ 
the  broth  was  done.     There  was  comfort  in  that. 

Similarly  it  seemed  as  if  a  blight  had  fallen  on  all  my 
receipts.  Professor  Blot  had  cooked  them  through  before 
my  very  eyes,  and  I  had  watched  them  with  an  intelligent 
interest,  and  transferred  them  to  my  note-book  with  consci- 
entious fidelity ;  but  the  trail  of  the  serpent  was  over  them 
all.  A  hiatus,  a  disjointure,  a  confusion  was  sure  to  develop 
itself  at  the  vital  points,  and  destroy  the  value  of  the  whole. 
And  by  as  much  as  the  important  circumstance  was  left  out, 


and  Worthkss?tess.  33 

the  unimportant  one  was  sure  to  be  in.  The  particular  in- 
gredient necessary  to  round  and  perfect  a  dish  was  not  to 
be  found ;  but  in  letters  of  living  light  was  sure  to  appear 
the  warning  that  roast  beef  and  stuffed  turkey  must  not  be 
served  together  !  As  if  people  with  our  income  were  in  the 
least  danger  of  suffering  from  a  conjunction  of  roast  beef 
and  stuffed  turkey ! 

"  But  you  may  have  it  a  la  mode,"  added  the  notes,  with 
grim  sarcasm. 

"  Soup,"  prescribes  the  same  discriminating  monitor,  giv- 
ing a  bill  of  fare  for  a  dinner — 

"  Soup. 

"  Radishes,  sardines,  melons,  hors  d'oeuvres. 

"  Fish  on  one  end. 

"  Butcher's  meat,  chicken  and  game. 

"  Puree,  with  meat  or  fish. 

"  Vegetables. 

"Dessert  (cheese  first)." 

An  unexceptionable  dinner,  no  doubt,  if  one  could  com- 
mand it.  But  what,  save  total  depravity,  could  account  for 
the  careful  record  of  all  these  luxuries,  and  a  total  failure  to 
secure  the  simplest  directions  for  the  preparation  of  a  single 
dish  ? 

Were  Professor  Blot's  lectures,  then,  a  failure  ?  As  the 
wise  do  not  need  them,  if  the  ignorant  can  not  assimilate 
them,  of  what  avail  are  they  ?  Of  the  greatest  in  the 
v.'orld.  Their  moral  uses  are  incalculable.  They  relieve 
your  imagination.  They  give  you  a  certain  confidence,  an 
acquaintance  with  modes  of  operation,  a  positive  and  com- 
forting assurance  that  causes  will  produce  effects.  It  is 
possible — your  own  eyes  bear  you  witness — for  meats  and 
vegetables,  fishes  and  puddings,,  to  glide  along  parallel  lines 
harmoniously  and  majestically  to  the  table.  A  raw,  red 
joint  goes  into  the  oven  ;  a  crisp,  delicate  roast  comes  out. 

B  2 


34  Woman  s  Worth 

"  You  might  see  the  same  thing  at  home,"  suggests  the  prac- 
tical mind.  But  you  do  7iot  see  the  same  thing  at  home. 
Nothing  lures  you  to  the  sight.  Very  likely  the  sight  is  not 
there,  and  if  it  be,  you  do  not  care  to  see  it.  You  might  as- 
siduously frequent  twenty  kitchens  without  being  sure  that 
you  were  not  learning  what  a  truer  knowledge  of  the  myste- 
rious art  will  force  you  to  unlearn.  But  good  company, 
novelty,  immunity  from  grease-spots  and  burns,  and,  best  of 
all,  a  perfect  confidence  in  the  source  of  knowledge,  make 
these  lectures  both  entertaining  and  instructive.  You  leave 
them  feeling  that  if  you  should  ever  be  obliged  to  fight  it 
out  on  that  line,  you  will  know  how  to  sight  your  guns  ;  and 
this,  of  itself,  is  no  small  part  of  the  battle.  Your  ideal  has 
a  shape,  your  ambition  a  goal.  You  are  not  necessarily 
master  of  arts,  but  you  know  in  what  direction  to  advance 
in  order  to  become  one.  Moreover,  the  processes  are  car- 
ried on  so  neatly  and  sweetly  that,  you  may  say,  children  cry 
for  them.  And  this  is  a  benefit  whose  value  is  not  to  be 
spoken.  Cooking  wears  so  winning  an  air,  it  opens  a  field 
for  so  much  skill,  it  displays  results  so  agreeable,  that  your 
old  repugnance  changes  unawares  into  interest,  into  admira- 
tion, into  impatience,  and  you  burn  to  shoulder  your  crutch 
and  show  how  fields  are  won. 

For  example : 

It  is  a  very  simple  thing  to  break  an  egg.  He  who  has 
enthusiastically  climbed  up  hay-mows,  and  across  the  great 
beam,  to  rifle  hens'  nests,  and  come  down  with  half  a  dozen 
eggs  in  his  pockets,  and  then  forgotten  them — he  knows,  to 
his  consternation,  how  easy  it  is  to  break  an  Qgg.  But  to 
break  it  over  the  cake-pan,  to  break  it  in  a  regular  equato- 
rial line,  without  shattering  the  shell,  and  scattering  the  bits 
in  the  sugar,  or  daubing  your  fingers  with  the  stringy  white, 
is  quite  another  thing.  Of  what  nature,  then,  must  be  that 
task  which  the  cookery-books  assign  when,  piling  Ossa  on 


and  Worthies  sues  s.  35 

Pelion,  lliey  bid  you  beat  the  yolks  and  whites  separately? 
It  is  like  those  sarcastic  receipts  for  making  hare-soup — 
first  catch  your  hare ;  or  for  capturing  birds — put  salt  on 
their  tails.  You  can  beat  the  yolks  and  the  whites  well 
enough  when  they  are  once  apart,  but  how  separate  two 
fluids  inseparably  mixed?  Who  shall  say  to  the  white, 
"  Come  forth  !"  and  to  the  yolk,  "Keep  back  !"  Who  does 
not  know  that  by  the  laws  of  matter,  when  the  shell  is  bro- 
ken, the  two  fluids  come  gulping  out  together  ?  No.  When- 
ever a  receipt  talks  in  that  wild  way,  the  only  resource  for 
weak  human  nature  is  to  follow  the  example  of  the  Scotch 
divine  in  the  presence  of  a  scriptural  difficulty — "  Look  it 
square  in  the  face  and  pass  on." 

But  French  skill  laughs  at  human  nature,  and  is  a  match 
for  universal  law.  That  round-cheeked  cook  solved  the  in- 
soluble. With  one  white  arm-sweep,  like  Juno  on  Ida — say 
rather  by  one  little  peck  outside,  such  as  the  future  chick 
would  have  made  within,  could  he  have  been  spared  till  his 
set  time  was  come — she  smote  the  shell  into  two  little  cups, 
and,  by  pouring  the  yolk  back  and  forth,  divided  as  deftly 
the  yellow  gold  from  the  liquid  crystal  as  the  blue  sea  stands 
divided  from  the  burning  beach.  Of  course,  now  you  have 
seen  it  done,  you  want  to  do  it  yourself  But  be  not  rash. 
Seeing  is  believing,  but  it  is  not  doing.  Shall  I  ever  forget 
how  she  snatched  the  whites  from  the  Celtic  scullion  who, 
at  her  directions,  was  beating  them,  but  with  that  slow,  awk- 
ward, uncertain  movement  which  belongs  to  the  natural  man ; 
and  how,  with  a  preternatural  swiftness  not  devoid  of  grace, 
and  dazzling  to  the  naked  eye,  she  whipped  them  into  a 
froth  and  foam,  into  a  sea  of  lightness  and  whiteness,  or  ever 
the  surprised  blood  had  faded  from  the  Celtic  cheek  ? 

So,  though  possibility  is  far  remote  from  accomplishment, 
Professor  Blot  seemed  to  throw  a  new  light  into  the  kitchen, 
or,  leaving  out  the  adjective,  he  threw  light  upon  the  dark- 


36  Wo?na?i's  Worth 

ness  hitherto  visible.  "All  hope  abandon,  ye  who  enter 
here,"  had  appeared  to  me  as  fit  a  motto  for  the  kitchen 
door  as  for  the  one  over  which  it  was  originally  inscribed  j 
but  when  I  next  passed  into  that  loveless  realm  it  was  with 
an  enthusiasm  and  a  buoyancy  which  had  hitherto  been  a 
stranger  there.  I  was  determined  no  more  to  creep  timidly 
along  the  coast,  as  in  the  days  of  my  ignorance.  Professor 
Blot  was  a  mariner's  compass,  in  the  confidence  engendered 
of  which  one  could  strike  out  boldly  into  the  open  sea. 

"  No  more  pottering  with  drop-cakes  and  rye  muffins,"  I 
said.  "  Professor  Blot  washed  his  hands  of  all  such  triviali- 
ties. I  shall  plunge  at  once  into  the  middle  of  things.  I 
shall  undertake  that  most  formidable  of  feats,* a  regular  din- 
ner.'   Roast  beef  and  plum-pudding. 

"  '  He  either  fears  his  fate  too  much, 
Or  his  deserts  are  small. 
That  dares  not  put  it  to  the  touch 
To  win  or  lose  it  all.' " 

"If  my  desserts  were  all  that  will  be  small,"  said  my  friend, 
"I  think  I  should  be  able  to  meet  my  fate  undaunted  !" 

Professor  Blot's  cook  had  a  scullion.  I  appointed  my 
friend  my  scullion.  He  stipulated  for  a  salary.  I  refused 
it,  and  offered  wages  small  but  sufficient,  and  capable  of  in- 
definite enlargement  according  to  increase  of  services.  He 
was  accessible  in  point  of  price,  but  impregnable  in  point  of 
technicalities.     What  objection  had  I  to  a  salary? 

It  was  too  fine  for  the  thing. 

Not  at  all.  It  was  peculiarly  appropriate.  Salar}',  sal, 
salt,  salt-money — money  given  you  to  buy  your  salt — your 
necessary  outlay  ;  thence  money  for  your  services.  What 
more  fit  than  that  money  awarded  you  for  kitchen-service 
should  be  salary — salt-money  ? 

What's  in  a  name  ?  "  Sal,  salt,  salt-money,"  I  said,  "  for 
him  who  just  earns  his  salt."     He  made  a  brilliant  scullion. 


and  WortJikssness.  37 

I  stationed  him  at  the  end  of  the  table,  intrenched  behind 
the  cookery-books  for  purposes  of  reference,  if  memory  or 
judgment  should  fail  me.  We  had  an  ample  library  of  this 
entertaining  literature  ;  for,  whenever  there  was  an  interreg- 
num in  our  culinary  kingdom,  and  it  became  necessary  for 
me  to  make  a  descent  into  the  kitchen,  I  always  signalized 
my  advent  by  the  purchase  of  a  new  cookery-book.  To 
these  must  be  added,  in  the  present  exigency,  the  undigested 
mass  of  the  notes  of  Professor  Blot's  lectures. 

The  experiment  of  the  dinner  was  completely  successful, 
thanks  to  French  tact  and  mother-wit.  The  beef  stopped 
at  the  precise  point  where  continuance  would  have  changed 
completeness  into  superfluity.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
there  were  no  false  steps.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  it  was 
an  easy  matter  to  get  the  dripping-pan  out  of  the  oven  and 
upon  the  table  without  spilling  liquor  or  burning  fingers.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that  when  I  would  fain  have  turned  the 
meat  over  in  the  pan  it  did  not  slip  from  my  hands  and 
splash  the  fat  on  my  face  and  dress  ;  nor  that,  when  I  would 
have  basted  it,  the  fat  did  not  have  a  way  of  running  outside 
the  pan  instead  of  inside.  "  Basting  it !"  said  my  scullion  ; 
"you  mean  bathing  it." 

"  Not  at  all.  Who  ever  heard  of  meat  being  bathed  ? 
The  original  cow  might  be  bathed ;  but  when  the  cow  has 
been  reconstructed  into  roast  beef,  we  baste  her." 

"When  a  cow  has  been  reconstructed  into  leather  she 
may  possibly  be  basted  with  a  waxed  end,  but  to  drench  her 
with  hot  fat  is  a  new  use  for  a  sewing-machine." 

"There  is  no  good  in  talking.  I  know  it  by  mnemonics. 
When  Professor  Blot  spoke  of  it,  I  connected  it  at  once  with 
basting  a  hem." 

"  And  is  there  the  smallest  resemblance  between  basting 
a  hem  and  basting  a  joint .?" 

"  No ;  that  is  why  I  remembered  it." 


38  IFomans  Worth 

"  Very  convincing.  It  must  be  basting,  because  it  is  ex- 
actly the  opposite  of  basting.  Like  the  village  of  Gilmanton 
Iron-works,  so  called,  according  to  living  tradition,  because 
there  are  no  iron- works  there." 

"  But,  my  dear,  get  the  best — get  Webster's,  and  see." 

"Why  have  recourse  to  fallible  man,  when  the  light  of  un- 
assisted reason  is  sufficient?  You  admit  that  your  word  in 
no  sense  represents  the  process.  How  with  my  word  ?  You 
pour  the  hot  fat  over  the  meat.  It  is  a  bath.  And  what, 
pray,  is  the  name  of  this  receptacle  ?" 

"  The  dripping-pan,  you  mean  ?" 

"Why  dripping-pan,  if  not  because  the  liquid  drops  into 
it — the  liquid  left  of  the  bath  ?  What  are  the  remnants  of 
basting  ?  Bits  of  thread.  Your  dripping-pan,  then,  ought 
to  be  called  a  rag-bag.  Your  own  words  condemn  you. 
Philology  is  a  swift  witness  against  you.  Discussion  is  fruit- 
less. If  you  have  bathed  your  meat  enough,  perhaps  you 
are  ready  to  return  it  to  the  oven." 

"  Quite.    Open  the  door.    I  think  it  is  thoroughly  basted." 

I  have  said  that  Hassan  was  a  brilliant  scullion.  He  was 
too  brilliant.  I  often  sighed  for  a  little  silent  stupidity.  We 
read  of  the  advantage  of  skilled  over  unskilled  labor,  and 
the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  the  universal  dissemination 
of  letters.  I  should  be  sorry  to  be  even  remotely  instru- 
mental in  putting  back  the  hand  on  the  dial-plate  of  prog- 
ress ;  but  if  there  is  any  thing  out  of  place,  impertinent,  and, 
as  housekeepers  say,  "  tr}'ing,"  it  is  erudition  in  the  kitchen. 
Philology  is  a  good  thing  ;  but  of  what  temper  must  that 
mortal  be  made  who  can  patiently  bide  a  philological  dis- 
pute over  a  half-cooked  joint  with  the  clock  galloping  stead- 
fastly toward  the  dinner  hour  ?  What  you  want  in  the  kitch- 
en^in  fact,  what  you  want  in  all  manner  of  service,  is  not 
literature,  not  argument,  but  prompt,  unquestioning,  auto- 
matic obedience.      Those   persons  who,  instead  of  doing 


and  Worthlessness.  39 

what  you  tell  them,  give  you  a  thousand  clever  and  ingen- 
ious reasons  for  not  doing  it,  may  be  very  enlightened  citi- 
zens, and  a  constant  proof  and  reminder  of  our  superiority 
to  the  ignorant  and  down-trodden  masses  of  the  Old  World, 
but  they  are  very  unprofitable  servants. 

The  examples  I  have  given  are  but  a  few  out  of  many 
cases  in  which  my  scullion  marred  an  otherwise  unexcep- 
tionable career  by  the  fruitless,  ill  timed,  and  pertinacious 
display  of  intelligence.  I  shudder  to  think  of  the  scenes 
that  will  ensue  should  our  great  and  glorious  republic  ever 
reach  that  stage  of  intellectual  development  toward  which 
we  are  constantly  and  eagerly  trying  to  advance  her. 

But  we  have  not  yet  reached  it,  and  I  am  therefore  proba- 
bly correct  in  assuming  that  it  is  not  generally  known  that  a 
dripping-pan  is  broader  than  it  is  long,  and  the  handles  are 
at  the  wrong  ends.  If  you  hold  on  by  them  you  can  hardly 
avoid  burning  at  least  one  of  your  wrists  when  you  put  the 
pan  in  the  oven.  I  thought  at  this  time  it  had  been  out  so 
long  it  would  not  be  hot,  and  that  the  meat  had  shrunk  so 
much  in  cooking  it  would  not  be  heavy.  So  I  undertook  to 
carry  the  pan  to  the  stove,  holding  one  end  in  both  hands. 
Alas !  I  had  miscalculated  my  strength  and  my  endurance, 
or  else  it  was  both  hotter  and  heavier  than  I  had  anticipated. 
I  advanced  in  a  straight  line  to  the  stove,  as  a  stone  goes 
down  a  precipice,  with  ever-accelerated  velocity,  while  the 
dripping-pan  seemed  to  be  sliding  with  disastrous  swiftness 
down  an  invisible  inclined  plane.  Hassan  was  at  that  mo- 
ment, as  Milton  remarks,  squat  like  a  toad  close  at  the  oven 
door,  holding  it  open.  He  saw  the  ruin  impending,  caught 
the  danger  in  an  instant,  gave  a  flying  leap  into  the  air,  and 
barely  escaped  a  lapful  of  meat  and  gravy ;  for  I  missed 
aim,  and,  instead  of  shooting  my  charge  into  the  oven,  dump' 
ed  it  a  few  inches  short,  striking  the  ground  a  little  to  lee- 
ward of  my  friend.     Only  one  end  of  the  dripping-pan  rest- 


40  lVo7Ha?i^s  Worth 

ed  on  the  floor,  as  I  clung  with  the  grasp  of  despair  to  the 
other,  regardless  of  hot  iron.  Thus  the  meat,  having  glided 
plump  to  the  farther  end  of  the  pan,  staid  there,  and  only 
the  grease  sputtered  out  upon  the  floor.  "  Call  the  cat,"  I 
commanded,  sententiously  ;  and  Hassan  was  too  grateful  for 
his  hair-breadth  escape  to  waste  words ;  so  we  three  speed- 
ily repaired  damages )  and  the  cat,  licking  her  paws  with 
deep  content,  congratulated  herself  that  it  is  an  ill  wind 
which  blows  nobody  any  good. 

Simultaneously  with  the  meat,  I  conducted  a  host  of  vege- 
tables to  a  harmonious  end.  It  was  like  a  novel  with  sev- 
eral distinct  plots,  all  tending  to  one  conclusion.  You  go  a 
little  way  with  one,  and  then  take  another.  Peas,  and  beans, 
and  beets,  and  carrots,  and  radishes,  and  potatoes.  The 
scullion  said  he  thought  there  were  too  many  things  on  the 
stove.  I  told  him  Professor  Blot  had  things  on  the  stove. 
He  questioned  if  roast  beef  took  kindly  to  carrots.  I  said 
that  was  not  in  the  bond ;  that  Professor  Blot  had  his  stove 
covered  with  sauce-pans,  and,  to  do  the  same,  we  must  have 
the  carrots.  In  preparing  the  radishes  I  had  an  impression 
that  the  whole  was  not  cooked.  I  asked  the  scullion  if  he 
knew  which  part  was  to  be  cooked.  He  said  he  believed 
radishes  were  not  generally  cooked  at  all.  I  said  there  was 
standing-room  on  the  stove  for  another  sauce-pan,  and  our 
radishes  must  be  cooked.  He  said  he  would  consult  Mrs. 
Putnam  on  that  point.  He  did  so  ;  but  Mrs.  Putnam  pre- 
served an  unbroken  silence,  and  we  inferred  it  must  have 
been  a  poor  year  for  radishes  when  she  made  her  cookery- 
book.  In  looking  for  the  radishes  we  came  upon  the  beets  ; 
and  I  was  struck  with  a  mild  consternation  at  learning  that 
they  must  not  be  cut  before  boiling.  I  had  carefully  peeled 
them  all  before  putting  them  in  the  sauce-pan.  Potatoes 
were  nicer  to  be  peeled,  and  the  question  naturally  arose  to 
the  inquiring  mind  why  not  beets  ?     It  is  true.  Professor  Blot 


a7id  Worthlessness.  41 

forbade  even  to  peel  potatoes  before  boiling,  as  their  nourish- 
ment lies  close  underneath  the  skin,  which  should  be  re- 
moved only  by  a  sort  of  caressing  urgency,  and  not  rudely 
severed  with  a  knife.  But  I  have  boiled  potatoes  from  in- 
fancy, peeling  them  first ;  and  if  there  is  one  point  on  which 
I  feel  competent  to  hold  an  opinion,  it  is  this.  So  I  peeled 
every  thing  but  the  peas  and  beans,  and  waited  for  the  wa- 
ter to  boil.  It  is  incredible  how  long  it  takes  water  to  boil 
when  you  are  waiting  for  it.  I  asked  the  scullion  if  he  had 
ever  heard  of  a  kind  of  water  that  was  impervious  to  fire. 
He  said  he  had  heard  of  the  next  best  thing — a  letter  that 
would  not  burn ;  or,  he  thought,  this  might  be  a  lineal  de- 
scendant of  the  curse  of  Kehama:  The  water  shall  see  thee, 
and  know  thee,  and  fly  thee,  and  the  winds  shall  not  touch 
thee  when  they  pass  by  thee.  But  it  was  not.  It  began  to 
sing  presently,  and  then  it  began  to  dance,  and  then,  obey- 
ing Professor  Blot's  directions  of"  the  first  boiling,"  I  thrust 
in  my  tubers  and  legumes,  all  hard  and  untoothsome  as  they 
were,  and  waited  the  wonderful  chemistry  of  the  fire.  The 
scullion  said  I  should  indefinitely  postpone  the  dinner  be- 
cause I  kept  lifting  the  covers  to  look  at  the  things.  But 
Professor  Blot  kept  looking  at  things.  It  was  an  ecstatic 
moment  when  they  began  to  grow  soft.  It  seemed  hardly 
possible  that  my  feeble  hands  should  have  succeeded  in 
turning  these  hard,  characterless,  inert  substances  into  fa- 
miliar, delicious  vegetables,  each  v/ith  its  own  individuality. 
But  that  was  what  they  did  turn  into,  and  with  great  rapidi- 
ty, after  they  had  once  set  about  it.  In  fact,  they  all  seem- 
ed to  have  hit  upon  the  same  moment  to  be  done  and  dish- 
ed up.  Besides,  there  was  the  table  to  set ;  and  at  the  last 
gasp  I  recollected  the  gravy,  and  was  torn  with  conflicting 
emotions.  With  great  presence  of  mind  I  clapped  on  a 
spider  of  water,  gave  the  scullion  a  bowl  of  flour-thickening 
to  stir,  and  told  him  to  call  me  just  before  the  water  was  go- 


42  Woman^s  Worth 

ing  to  boil.  He  asked  how  should  he  know  when  the  water 
was  going  to  boil.  I  said,  tell  by  the  clock.  There  are  doz- 
ens of  clocks  lying  about  the  house,  and  as  each  runs  on  its 
own  account,  when  one  is  not  striking  another  is,  so  we  can 
always  know  the  time  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night.  Pres- 
ently he  put  his  head  into  the  dining-room  door,  and  told  me 
to  come  and  make  the  gravy.  The  water  was  bullatura — 
about  to  boil.  I  went  out  and  stirred  in  the  thickening, 
sprinkled  on  salt,  and  told  him  to  keep  stirring  till  it  boiled 
again,  to  make  it  thick.  It  was  not  long  before  he  was  pro- 
truding his  head  through  the  doorway  once  more,  and  ask- 
ing, with  a  strong  Hibernian  accent,  "  Does  not  gr-r-ase 
make  gravy  ?" 

"  Grace  ?"  I  queried. 

"  Gr-r-r-ase,  mum." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?" 

"  To  look  at  It  from  a  scientific  point  of  view,"  he  said, 
relinquishing  the  Hibernian  and  assuming  the  professorial 
manner,  "  is  water  the  natural  basis  of  gravy  ?" 

Now  water  is  a  great  ingredient  in  our  cooking.  Hassan 
often  remarks  that  he  does  not  know  how  we  should  get  on 
without  a  well  to  go  to.  If  the  milk  falls  short,  there  is  al- 
ways the  pump  handy.  Certainly  it  was  not  for  nothing 
that  we  advertised  a  "  pump  in  the  sink."  Still,  contemplat- 
ing this  useful  liquid  as  the  fundamental  idea  of  gravy,  I  was 
conscious  of  an  incongruity.  I  stirred  it  abstractedly,  tak- 
ing up  a  spoonful  now  and  then,  and  pouring  it  back  again. 
"  Seems  as  if  it  is  not  dark  enough,"  I  remarked,  doubtfully. 
"  Perhaps  it  will  boil  down." 

"  It  has  been  boiling  up  some  time,  if  that  has  any  thing 
to  do  with  it." 

"  Really,  do  you  suppose  it  is  gravy  ?     Why  not  starch  ?" 

"The  event  must  determine." 

"  I  wish  you  would  just  taste  it." 


and  Worthless?iess.  43 

"  No,  my  dear  ;  fancy  how  stiff  my  manners  would  become 
in  case  it  is  starch." 

"  Look  at  Mrs.  Putnam." 

"  She  hides,  Hke  Galatea,  among  the  rushes." 

"  No  directions  for  gravy  ?" 

"Not  a  direction,  neither  under  meats  nor  miscellane- 
ouses." 

"See  starch, then." 

"The  starch, too, is  an  ecHpse." 

"  Very  well,"  I  said,  with  a  sudden  inspiration,  and  snatch- 
ed off  the  spider.  "  What  is  not  in  the  cookery-books  shall 
not  be  on  my  table.  Gravies  are  universally  admitted  to 
be  unwholesome,  and  Professor  Blot  says  no  flour  should  be 
put  into  gravy." 

So  that  was  happily  settled.  Only  my  scullion  says  he 
shall  never  cease  to  regret  that  we  did  not  let  the  mysteri- 
ous substance  go  on  and  see  what  would  come  of  it. 

The  pudding  was  a  plum-pudding ;  not  an  English  plum- 
pudding — for  I  have  understood  that  in  the  arts  of  the  table 
the  English  are  hardly  less  barbarous  than  ourselves — but 
an  American  Thanksgiving  plum-pudding,  made  the  night 
beforehand  of  bread,  and  butter,  and  milk,  and  eggs ;  only 
I  left  out  the  butter  and  eggs,  because,  if  the  pudding  should 
prove  a  failure,  it  would  be  a  pity  to  lose  them  too ;  though, 
as  I  observed  to  my  scullion,  it  must  be  good,  because  there 
were  nothing  but  good  things  in  it— a  layer  of  bread,  a  lay- 
er of  raisins,  a  layer  of  sugar,  and  soak  in  milk  overnight ; 
the  next  day  add  more  milk  and  bake  it.  It  baked  curious- 
ly. It  seemed  somehow  not  to  have  passed  the  point  where 
bread  ceases  to  be  bread  and  becomes  pudding.  It  was 
not  a  homogeneous  mass,  but  lay  in  regular  strata — primary, 
tertiary,  old  red  sandstone — only  the  different  strata  were 
not  petrified,  but  the  opposite — pap-ified,  you  might  say,  ex- 
cept here  and  there  hard  places,  a  sort  of  trap  rock.     But 


44  Woman's  Worth 

the  scullion  said  he  liked  the  hard  places.  In  making  the 
sauce  I  followed  Mrs,  Putnam,  only  putting  water  and  flour 
where  she  said  wine  and  sugar,  to  diminish  the  loss  in  case 
of  failure.  Every  thing  was  very  good,  as  it  had  to  be,  since 
there  was  nothing  in  it  but  what  was  good.  And  the  re- 
mainder was  made  over  into  a  custard-pudding  next  day, 
which  looked  far  more  like  a  custard-pudding  than  the  plum- 
pudding  looked  like  a  plum-pudding,  which  was  encoura- 
ging- 


and  Worthkssness.  45 


III. 
FALLING  FROM  GRACE. 

If  I  could  be  sure  that  only  men  would  read  these  short 
and  simple  annals  of  the  poor,  and  if  there  were  any  way 
by  which  men  could  be  forced  to  read  them,  I  would  go  on 
indefinitely.  Women  in  their  daily  life  breathe  airs  all  too 
redolent  of  the  kitchen-range,  and  one  would  not  willingly 
run  the  risk  of  adding  the  fatal  straw  to  the  camel's  burden 
by  filling  their  literature  with  the  fumes  of  roast  and  stew. 
But  if  the  men — the  men  who  are  so  unwearied  in  pressing 
upon  women  the  claims  of  cookery,  who  never  tire  of  telling 
us  that  the 'way  to  a  man's  heart  winds  around  his  palate 
— an  elevated  and  doubtless  sufiiciently  accurate  view  of 
masculine  afiection;  at  least,  if  men  do  not  quarrel  with  it, 
women  need  not — could  these  men  be  doomed  by  some  in- 
evitable sentence  to  sit  on  a  bench  all  day  and  read,  or,  still 
better,  hear  read  to  them  by  their  wives  and  daughters,  what- 
ever I  should  write  on  the  subject,  I  should  feel  that  I  had 
something  still  to  live  for.  And  oh  !  with  what  ease  could 
I,  and  with  what  alacrity  would  I,  draw  out  this  linked  sweet- 
ness to  twice,  and  thrice,  and  four  times  its  present  length, 
and  with  what  matchless  ecstasy  should  I  witness  the  writh- 
ings  of  fatigue  which  it  would  cause  !  No  inquisitor  gloat- 
ing over  the  tortures  of  his  heretical  victim,  no  Nero  fiddling 
and  feeding  the  fires  of  Rome,  no  spider  watching  with  fierce, 
still  intensity  his  whirling  lines  dependent  that  bespeak  an 
entangled  fly,  should  rise  to  a  higher  rapture  of  joy  than 
would  swell  this  exultant  heart  at  being  made  the  instru- 
ment in  the  hands  of  Providence  of  dealing  out  exact  poetic 


46  Woman's  Worth 

justice  to  a  generation  of  culprits  !  How  should  each  suc- 
cessive experiment  be  portrayed  with  a  more  than  pre- 
Raphaelitic  fidelity  !  Nulla  dies  sine  linea  ?  Nulla  hour, 
nulla  moment  while  passion  stirs  this  mortal  frame  !  No 
device,  no  attempt,  no  failure,  even,  without  its  page,  not  to 
say  its  chapter.  The  cream  toast  that  began  so  bravely 
and  ended  so  scaly  and  weakly  should  have  its  diagnosis 
and  its  prognosis — whatever  they  may  be — with  an  enthusi- 
asm of  detail.  The  cold  sauce  that  was  kneaded  and  knead- 
ed, and  that  swelled  and  swelled  till  the  mouse  threatened 
to  become  an  elephant,  should  have  its  impartial  history, 
with  all  the  causes  that  led  to  it,  and  all  the  results  that 
sprang  from  it,  and  all  the  things  that  might  have  happened 
if  the  things  that  did  happen  had  happened  the  other  way, 
according  to  the  style  of  the  most  approved  historians.  Nor 
should  patience  fail  me  to  speak  of  that  momentous  day 
when,  smitten  with  ambition  and  high  resolve,  I  bolted  the 
doors,  lowered  the  window-shades,  and  boiled  soft  custard 
into  a  residuum  to  which  the  most  confirmed  Swedenborgian 
would  be  forced  to  hope  there  was  nothing  corresponding  in 
the  spirit  world,  and  then  incautiously  poured  it  into  the 
best  glass  pitcher,  which  immediately  threatened  to  betray 
its  secret  by  cracking  with  appalling  detonations,  and  which 
was  hastily  bound  roundabout  with  a  strong  cord  hidden 
under  the  decoration  of  red,  white,  and  blue  ribbon,  to  keep 
the  molten  metal  from  oozing  out,  and  how  I  wished  after- 
ward that  it  had  oozed  out,  for  there  was  too  much  to  be  hid- 
den, and  it  was  too  bad  to  be  eaten.  What  agonies  I  suf- 
fered in  convoying  that  custard  from  pillar  to  post  to  keep 
it  out  of  harm's  and  Hassan's  way  !  And  no  sooner  was  it 
snuggled  up  on  the  top  shelf  of  the  most  unfrequented  closet 
in  Dan  than  you  were  sure  to  hear  a  pair  of  boots  squeak- 
ing around  in  that  vicinity,  and  then  some  pretext  had  to 
be  invented  to  call  them  off,  and  give  me  a  chance  to  trans- 


and  Worthlessness.  47 

fer  the  prodigy  to  an  equally  undreamed-of  cupboard  in 
Beersheba.  If  the  Cardiff  giant  gave  its  depositors  half  the 
trouble  that  my  custard  gave  me,  it  must  have  been  but  a 
sorry  joke  for  them,  for  it  is  heart-rending  to  throw  sugar 
and  eggs,  like  physic,  to  the  dogs,  and  for  the  first  few  days 
I  had  a  lively  hope  that  it  might  settle  down  into  a  market- 
able commodity. 

Still  fixing  with  my  glittering  eye  my  wretched  victims,  I 
would  tell  them  the  Tale  of  the  Boiled  Dish — as  country 
people  love  to  call  that  dinner  of  herbs  and  stalled  ox,  old 
and  salt,  prolific  of  perfumes  lingering  and  pervasive  like 
musk,  horresco  referens,  but  dear  to  the  bucolic  heart.  How 
tough  was  the  skin  of  the  parsneps,  and  how  one  had  to  dig 
to  get  it  off.  And  what  a  dreadful  noise  the  cabbages  made 
when  one  touched  them  ! 

"  And  how  many  turnips  would  you  have  ?"  I  queried,  in- 
nocently, basket  in  hand,  going  down  into  ITnferno  to  get 
them. 

"What  is  a  turnip?"  asked  the  scullion,  with  an  Indian 
war-club,  as  it  were. 

To  which,  undaunted  and  free,  I  made  answer  :  "A  turnip 
is  a  fusiform,  napiform  root,  brassica  rapa,  depressed  globose, 
contracted  into  a  slender  radicle,  radical  leaves  lyrate,  cau- 
line  ones  incised,  upper  entire,  amplexicaul." 

"  There  is  no  necessity  for  flinging  all  your  early  botany 
at  me,"  he  said,  somewhat  abashed,  fleeing  when  resisted, 
after  the  manner  of  his  kind.  "  I  want  to  know  how  big  is 
a  turnip." 

"  How  long  is  a  rope  ?  What  are  the  solid  contents  of  a 
strip  of  pork  ?" 

This  was  a  fair  hit.  He  had  made  himself  merry  not 
long  before  because  I  left  orders  with  the  butcher  for  a  strip 
of  pork,  which  he  considered  equivalent  to  ordering  a  piece 
of  meat,  or  any  other  abstraction.     He  was   a  good  deal 


48  Woman's  Worth 

taken  aback  at  being  told  authoritatively  what  I  had  indeed 
learned  only  half  an  hour  previous,  and  what,  no  doubt,  the 
larger  number  of  my  readers  are  living  to  this  day  in  hea- 
then ignorance  of — that  a  strip  of  pork  is  a  technical  phrase. 
I  might — so  intricate  is  the  science  of  the  kitchen — have 
gone  through  life  myself  in  Cimmerian  darkness  but  for  the 
merest  accident,  turned  to  account  by  such  an  inquiring 
and  reflective  mind  as  educed  the  law  of  the  universe  from 
the  fall  of  an  apple. 

"You  cut  up  pork  into  strips  from  four  to  five  inches 
wide,"  said  my  informant,  with  ill-concealed  scorn,  "and 
that  is  '  a  strip  of  pork'  the  world  over." 

"  Oh  !  the  animal  is  served  up  in  strips,  then,"  trying  to 
look  intelligent ;  for  it  is  as  much  as  your  life  is  worth  not 
to  know  every  thing  in  presence  of  that  most  unrelenting  of 
tyrants,  "a  good  housekeeper." 

"  No  ;  only  the  middlings." 

Worse  and  worse. 

"  The  middlings  ?"  faintly,  in  hopes  that  some  hint  may, 
unsought,  be  won  that  will  throw  a  light  on  the  middlings. 
But  none  comes. 

"And  what,  pray,  are  the  middlings  ?" 

"Why,  that  is  the  middlings.  The  strips  are  the  mid- 
dlings. You  ask  for  the  middlings,  and  the  butcher  will 
say, '  How  much  do  you  want  ?'  And  you  say  you  will  take 
a  strip." 

"  That  is,  the  strips  are  the  species,  and  the  middlings  the 
genus  ?" 

"  Fiddlesticks !"  says  your  good  housekeeper,  who  has 
more  wisdom  in  her  own  conceit,  and  more  contempt  for  all 
other  accomplishments  without  her  own  than  ten  men  that 
can  render  a  reason. 

Full  well  you  laugh  with  counterfeited  glee,  and  return  to 
your  cochon,  determined  to  exhaust  this  department  of  sci- 


and  Worthlessness.  49 

ence,  now  you  are  on  it,  so  that  you  can  henceforth  hold  up 
your  head  in  good  society. 

"  But  it  seems  that  all  pork  is  not  strips  and  middlings." 

"  Of  course  not.  There  are  the  shoulders,  and  the  leg, 
and  the  lard,  and  the  leaves." 

One  and  two  you  know  by  the  light  of  unassisted  reason. 
Number  three  you  see  through  a  glass  darkly.  But  you  go 
scrambling  around  in  your  mind  to  find  what  leaves  can 
mean  as  pertaining  to  swine. 

And  you  have  to  ask,  after  all. 

"  Leaves  ?  Why,  leaves  comes  out  of  the  inside  of  the 
spare-rib.  There's  nobody  that  knows  any  thing  but  knows 
what  the  spare-rib  is." 

Of  course  you  would  be  likely  to  inquire  after  this  mild 
hint. 

"But  that  is  not  telling  what  leaves  are." 

"  Leaves  is  what  you  try  up  for  the  lard." 

"And  the  middlings  is  all  besides  these — all  the  Internal 
Improvements  ?" 

"  Yes.     What  you  want  to  salt  is  middlings." 

There  it  is  again,  you  see.  Nothing  is  said  about  salt  till 
the  last  moment,  when  you  supposed  your  understanding 
of  the  subject  complete,  and  then  suddenly  a  Dead  Sea  is 
rolled  in  upon  you. 

And,  as  if  this  were  not  enough,  ere  yet  the  ink  was  dry 
upon  these  pages,  I  made  a  call  upon  a  friend  high  in  offi- 
cial and  social  position,  and  while  we  were  deep  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  fixed  fate,  free-will,  foreknowledge  absolute,  his 
wife,  one  of  those  inveterate  housekeepers  before  stigma- 
tized, an  excellent  woman  in  every  other  respect,  but  con. 
ceited  and  domineering  to  the  last  degree  in  point  of  house- 
keeping, cut  in  with — 

"  There !  David  has  come.  Now  stop  your  harangue, 
and  go  down  with  him  and  salt  the  pork." 

C 


50  Woman^s  Worth 

Meekly  he  bowed  his  head,  as  only  a  man  can  who  has 
been  thoroughly  subdued  by  a  long  course  of  domestic  dis- 
cipline, and  murmured,  helplessly, 

"  Is  there  any  thing  except  the  pork  to  be  salted  ?" 
Here  I  pricked  up  my  ears,  determined  to  distinguish 
myself  by  interposing  some  casual  remark  to  show  my  lady 
that  I  was  well  "  up"  on  the  subject ;  but  my  budding  am- 
bition was  instantaneously  frostbitten  by  her  branching  off 
into  a  disquisition  on  saics age-meat,  which  had  not  been 
dreamed  of  in  my  philosophy.  Thus  ever,  when  you  fancy 
yourself  to  be  nearing  the  summit  of  your  aim,  do  hills  on 
hills  and  Alps  on  Alps  arise.  And  after  sausage-meat  come 
souse,  and  head-cheese,  and  pig's  feet,  and  haslet,  and  what 
not,  till  you  feel  yourself  trampled  under  foot  of  a  whole 
herd  of  swine.  Now,  if  these  things  are  done  in  a  green 
tree,  what  shall  be  done  in  a  dry?  If  there  is  so  much  to 
be  known  about  the  most  despised  of  all  the  animals  that 
are  admitted  to  a  gentleman's  table,  who  shall  fathom  the 
depths  of  science  wherein  fish,  flesh,  and  fowl  of  good  re- 
pute lie  pickled  ?  Yet,  unless  you  know  all  these  things,  you 
are  no  housekeeper — you  have  "no  faculty."  It  is  not 
simply  to  roast  your  meat,  but  to  understand  the  moral  na- 
ture, so  to  speak,  of  the  beast  whence  it  is  taken — all  the 
special  fitnesses  of  its  special  parts  for  special  uses — all  its 
special  needs  in  point  of  preservation — all  the  adaptations 
of  its  times  and  seasons  to  the  revolutions  of  the  earth  on 
its  axis  and  the  stars  in  their  courses.  Thus  the  good  house- 
keeper must,  like  Lord  Bacon,  take  all  knowledge  to  be  her 
province.  She  sees,  as  did  Cicero,  that  all  the  arts  which 
pertain  to  humanity  have,  as  it  were,  a  common  chain  bind- 
ing them  to  her  kitchen  stove.  Yet  so  unequal  are  the  ways 
of  justice  and  the  demands  of  our  artificial  society,  that  she 
who  hesitates  in  a  single  one  of  these  arts  is  lost ;  while  Mr. 
Henry  V/ard  Beecher,  by  his  own  confession,  wipes  the  dish- 


and  Worthies sness.  51 

es  with  a  newspaper  when  his  wife  is  awa}^,  and  Professor 
Blot,  as  these  eyes  have  seen,  tosses  them  on  a  sofa  without 
washing  at  all.     And  no  dog  barks. 

That  severe  virtue  which  presides  over  the  American 
newspaper  finds  a  noble  exercise  of  its  powers  in  the  follow- 
ing paragraph,  which  appears  in  an  eminently  religious 
newspaper : 

"Many  young  ladies  in  our  day  look  on  kitchen-work  as 
so  riiuch  drudgery,  to  be  shunned  whenever  possible.  It 
may  possibly  inspire  some  of  them  to  better  thoughts  to 
know  that  the  royal  family  of  England  consider  excellence 
in  this  department  as  an  important  womanly  virtue.  An  ex- 
change says  : 

"  '  But  Queen  Victoria,  the  highest  gentlewoman  in  the 
land,  did,  down  to  the  lamented  death  of  the  prince,  pay 
daily  visits  of  inspection  to  her  kitchen,  pantry,  confection- 
ery, still-room,  and  was  proud  of  and  did  herself  show  those 
rooms  to  her  visitors  when  staying  at  the  castle  ;  and,  car- 
rying out  the  recognized  principles  of  female  duty,  model 
kitchens  were  constructed  at  Windsor  and  Osborne,  where 
all  the  princesses,  from  the  eldest  downward,  have  passed  a 
portion  of  each  day  in  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the  various 
duties  of  domestic  economy  in  the  management  of  a  house- 
hold. In  their  model  kitchen  the  princesses  have  daily  prac- 
ticed the  art  of  cookery,  and  also  confectionery  in  all  its  va- 
rious branches.  There  is  a  small  store-room  adjoining  each 
kitchen,  where  each  princess  in  turn  gives  out  the  stores, 
weighing  or  measuring  each  article,  and  making  an  entry 
thereof  in  a  book  kept  for  the  purpose  ;  besides  which  the 
princesses  make  bread  ;  and  that  is  not  all — they  have  a 
dairy  where  they  churn  butter  and  make  cheese.'  " 

After  so  signal  a  rebuke,  it  can  not  be  expected  that  the 
evil  in  question  will  ever  again  shov/  its  head.  If  the  royal 
family  of  England  count  kitchen-work  an  important  woman- 
ly virtue,  that  settles  the  question.  No  American  young 
lady  can  henceforth  consider  it  drudgery.  And  how  charm- 
ing is  the  logic  to  which  the  impulsive  but  inconclusive  fe- 


52  lJ'ot;ia/is  Worth 

male  mind  is  here  treated  !  Queen  Victoria  pays  daily  vis- 
its of  inspection  to  her  kitchen  and  pantry,  therefore  Ameri- 
can young  ladies  should  love  to  work  in  theirs.  Queen  Vic- 
toria is  proud  of  her  rooms,  and  does  herself  show  themi  to 
her  visitors — arduous  toil !  Therefore  American  young  la- 
dies must  delight  to  bake,  and  brew,  and  scrub.  'Tis  as  like 
as  my  fingers  to  my  fingers. 

And  the  princesses,  too — virtuous  creatures — have  model 
kitchens,  in  which  they  work  a  portion  of  each  day.  But 
pray,  now,  Messieurs  Censors  of  American  young  women, 
what  occupies  these  exemplary  princesses  in  their  toy  kitch- 
ens ?  Do  they,  let  us  say,  rise  betimes  in  the  morning,  shake 
down  the  coal-stove,  sift  the  ashes,  bring  in  the  kindlings, 
build  the  fire,  pump  the  water,  put  on  the  tea-kettle,  broil 
the  steak,  toss  the  omelet,  bake  the  corn-cake,  make  the 
coffee,  set  the  table,  wash  the  dishes,  sweep  the  floor,  polish 
the  stove,  trim  the  lamps  every  morning  of  the  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five?  Conscript  fathers,  do  you  not  know 
perfectly  well  that  what  these  young  princesses  do  is  simply 
to  play  at  work .?  They  take  the  kitchen  just  as  they  take 
music — in  lessons.  They  have  their  model  kitchens  and  an 
array  of  well-trained  servants,  and  are  instructed  in  the  cul- 
inary arts  by  skillful  teachers  ;  and  they  amuse  themselves 
and  gratify  their  friends  by  practicing  occasionally  what  they 
have  learned.  There  is  no  more  resemblance  between  their 
kitchen-work  and  the  kitchen-work  of  the  great  majority  of 
American  households  than  there  is  between  their  embroid- 
eiy  and  the  slop-making  of  the  needle-woman  who  sews  for 
dear  life  fourteen  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  be  an  inmate  of  kings'  palaces  to  know  this, 
The  light  of  nature  teaches  so  much.  Do  not  presume  so 
far  upon  the  fatuity  of  your  young  countrywomen.  It  hurts 
you,  and  does  not  amuse  them.  There  is  not  a  girl  in  Amer- 
ica who  would  not  be  willing  to  do  all  the  housework  that 


and  Worthlessness.  53 

Queen  Victoria  and  her  daughters  perform,  if  she  could  do 
it  from  the  same  motives  and  with  the  same  machinery. 

We  have  heard  a  great  deal  from  time  to  time  of  the  do- 
mesticity of  English  ladies  of  birth  and  breeding.  Many 
is  the  duchess,  and  countess,  and  baroness  who  has  gone 
down  the  columns  of  the  American  newspaper  into  her  kitch- 
en and  store-room  to  give  orders,  and  keep  accounts,  and 
supervise  her  household  arrangements,  and  who  has  conse- 
quently been  held  up  as  an  example  to  the  negligent  house- 
keepers of  our  own  unhappy  land.  I  never  did  put  any 
great  faith  in  these  stories ;  and  here  comes  an  Englishman 
in  the  London  Daily  News  to  help  mine  unbelief.  He  is 
traveling  in  America,  and,  speaking  of  the  "  residents  of 
most  of  the  three-window  stone  houses"  in  New  York,  he 
says: 

"  If  she  [the  wife]  has  a  carriage,  she  drives  in  the  Park 
in  the  afternoon  ;  and  in  the  evening  she  either  receives  vis- 
its at  home  or  visits  at  the  house  of  some  friend.  She  gen- 
erally is  her  own  housekeeper^  and  she  occupies  herself  far  more 
with  housekeeping  affairs  than  an  English  lady  in  the  same 
social  position. 

"  Cooks  here  receive  about  twenty-five  dollars  a  month ; 
and,  on  the  whole,  dinners  are  better  than  with  us.  This  is 
mainly  due  to  the  wives  themselves  frequently  visiting  the  kitch- 
en, a7id  having  some  knowledge  of  cookery  ^ 

I  spare  my  gallant  countrymen  all  comment  upon  this 
simple  statement,  choosing  rather  to  leave  them  to  their  own 
awakened  consciences  and  detected  guilt.  And,  such  is  the 
depravity  of  the  masculine  human  heart,  and  such  its  un- 
scrupulousness  in  the  use  of  means,  that  if  we  were  as  fa- 
miliar with  English  newspapers  as  with  our  own,  we  should 
doubtless  find  the  Catos  of  the  English  press  just  as  for- 
ward as  our  own  in  shaming  their  countrywomen  with  the 
domestic  virtues  of  their  transatlantic  sisters  ! 


54  Woman^s  Worth 

Housekeeping  with  well-trained,  or  at  least  weil-disposed 
servants,  is  the  only  way  of  life  tolerable  to  an  adult  Chris- 
tian ;  but  any  woman  who  enjoys  housekeeping  with  only 
her  own  self  for  maid-of-all-work  discovers  thereby  some 
radical  organic  defect.  It  is  well  enough  for  a  short  time, 
while  the  exhilaration  of  the  novelty  lasts  ;  and  even  after 
the  exhilaration  and  the  novelty  are  over,  a  little  of  it  is 
wholesome  for  the  future  conduct  of  life.  Indeed,  I  think 
no  one  who  has  not  some  practical  acquaintance  with  it,  not 
in  its  holiday  garb,  but  in  its  working  dress,  is  ever  quite 
master  of  the  situation.  To  go  down  into  the  kitchen  after 
breakfast,  to  have  Mary  bring  you  all  the  ingredients  for 
your  cake  or  your  dessert,  and  after  the  dainty  work  is  done 
leave  the  "clearing  up"  for  her— this  is  occasionally  an 
amusement.  But  you  need  to  feel  the  iron  enter  into  your 
own  soul,  to  bear  the  responsibility  of  the  whole  day,  to  see 
the  awful  regularity  with  which  the  breakfast-hour,  and  the 
dinner-hour,  and  the  supper-hour  come,  and  the  awful  ir- 
regularity with  which  the  breakfast,  and  the  dinner,  and  the 
supper  rise  up  to  meet  them,  to  watch  all  the  niceties  of 
mixing  and  baking,  and  then  to  front  all  the  horrors  of  pots, 
and  kettles,  and  spiders,  and  skillets — in  short,  you  need  to 
experience  the  numberless  vexations  and  the  irritating  fa- 
tigues in  order  to  knovv'  what  service  to  exact  of  your  serv- 
ants, what  completeness  to  expect,  what  shortcomings  to 
forgive. 

Some  of  the  reproaches  wherewithal  we  reproach  our  fore- 
fathers— meaning  in  this  instance  our  foremothers — are  di- 
rected against  customs  which,  I  am  persuaded,  have  their 
rise  in  this  dreadful  and  fearful  burden  of  housework.  We 
have  all  ridiculed  or  denounced  the  farm-houses,  open  on 
the  kitchen  side,  but  solemnly  shut  up  as  to  the  best  rooms; 
and  we — those  of  us  who  are  men — write  essays  and  deliver 
lectures  to  show  how  much  better  and  more  cheerful  it  is 


and  Worthkssness.  55 

to  throw  open  the  whole  house  to  the  free  play  of  sun  and 
breeze.  I  regret  to  admit  that  I  have  joined  in  these  short- 
sighted diatribes  myself  I  desire  to  make  public  recanta- 
tion, and  do  hereby  declare  and  affirm  that,  so  far  from  de- 
nouncing the  custom,  my  only  wonder  is  that  women  who 
perform  their  own  house-work  do  not  shut  up  their  houses 
altogether  and  live  in  the  barn-chamber.  Who  would  not  a 
thousand  times  rather  eat  his  meat  with  gladness  and  sin- 
gleness of  heart  on  a  haystack,  and  serenely  toss  the  frag- 
ments down  to  the  stalled  ox  below,  than  roast  the  stalled 
ox  himself  and  eat  him  in  never  so  gorgeous  a  dining-room, 
with  the  dishes  to  wash  and  the  floor  to  sweep  afterward? 
For,  in  the  first  case,  the  stalled  ox  would  be  a  cheerful  and 
soothing  companion,  in  the  other  an  irritating  and  inexora- 
ble tyrant.  While  you  were  devouring  his  body,  he  would 
be  devouring  your  soul. 

It  is  simply  impossible — listen  now,  I  pray,  all  knights  of 
high  and  low  degree,  marching  along,  thousandscore  strong, 
great-hearted  gentlemen  singing  this  song  of  woman's  sphere- 
icity — it  is  simply  impossible  for  any  woman  to  do  the  work 
of  her  household  and  make  her  life  what  a  woman's  life 
ought  to  be.  This  is  a  rule  that  admits  of  no  exception 
and  no  modification.  The  machinery  of  the  family  is  so 
complicated  and  so  exacting  that  one  woman  can  not  have 
the  sole  charge  of  it  without  neglecting  other  and  equally 
important  matters.  The  duties  which  a  woman  owes  to  so- 
ciety, and  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  part  of  her  household, 
are  just  as  imperative  as  those  which  she  owes  to  its  phys- 
ical comfort.  And  if  she  alone  ministers  to  the  latter,  the 
former  must  be  neglected,  and  the  latter  will  hardly  be  thor- 
oughly accomplished.  I  know  all  about  our  noble  grand- 
mothers. I  have  heard  of  them  before.  I  think  we  could 
run  a  race  with  them  any  day.  But  if  we  can  not,  whose 
fault  is  it.-*     If  the  women  of  to-day  are  puny,  fragile,  degen- 


56  Woman's  Worth 

erate,  are  they  not  the  grandchildren  of  their  grandmothers 
^-bearing  such  constitutions  as  their  grandmothers  could 
transmit  ?  It  was  the  duty  of  those  venerable  ladies  not 
only  to  be  strong  themselves,  but  to  see  to  it  that  their  chil- 
dren were  strong.  A  sturdy  race  should  leave  a  sturdy  race. 
It  Vv'as  far  more  their  duty  to  give  to  their  children  vigorous 
minds,  stalwart  bodies,  healthy  nerves,  firm  principles,  than 
it  was  to  spin,  and  weave,  and  make  butter  and  cheese  all 
day.  We  should  have  got  along  just  as  well  with  less  linen 
laid  up  in  lavender ;  and  if  our  grandmothers  could  only 
have  waited,  we  would  have  woven  them  more  cloth  in  a  day 
than  their  hand-looms  would  turn  out  in  a  lifetime.  But 
there  is  no  royal  road  to  a  healthy  manhood  and  woman- 
hood. Nothing  less  costly  than  human  life  goes  into  the 
construction  of  human  life.  We  should  have  more  reason 
to  be  grateful  to  our  ancestors  if  they  had  given  up  their 
superfluous  industries,  called  off  their  energy  from  its  per- 
ishable objects,  and  let  more  of  their  soul  and  strength 
flow  leisurely  in  to  build  up  the  soul  and  strength  of  the 
generations  that  were  to  come  after  them.  Nobody  is  to 
blame  for  being  born  weak.  If  this  generation  of  women  is 
feeble  compared  with  its  hardy  and  laborious  grandmothers, 
it  is  simply  because  the  grandmothers  put  so  much  of  their 
vitality,  their  physical  nerve  and  moral  fibre,  into  their  churn- 
ing and  spinning,  that  they  had  but  an  insufficient  quantity 
left  wherewithal  to  endow  their  children,  and  so  they  wrought 
us  evil. 

One  would  not  willingly  quarrel  with  his  grandmothers. 
All  agree  in  awarding  them  praise  for  heroic  qualities.  They 
fought  a  good  fight — perhaps  the  best  they  could  under  the 
circumstances  with  their  light.  We  would  gladly  overlook 
all  in  their  lives  that  was  defective,  and  fasten  our  eyes  only 
on  that  which  was  noble.  But  when  their  fault  is  distinctly 
pointed  out  as  their  virtue,  when  their  necessity  is  exalted 


and  Worthies  sues  s.  57 

into  our  ensample,  when  their  narrowness  is  held  up  to  our 
ambition,  we  must  say  that  it  was  fault,  and  need,  and  nar- 
rowness, grandmother  or  no  grandmother.     Indeed  those 
excellent  gentlewomen,  no  doubt,  long  before  this  have  seen 
the  error  of  their  ways,  and,  if  they  could  find  voice,  would 
be  the  first  to  avow  that  they  did  set  too  great  store  by  chests 
of  sheets,  and  bureaus  of  blankets,  and  pillow-cases  of  stock- 
ings, and  stacks  of  provisions  ;  and  that  if  it  were  given  them 
to  live  life  over  again,  they  would  endeavor  rather  to  lay  up 
treasure  in  the  bodies,  and  brains,  and  hearts  of  their  chil- 
dren, where  moth  and  mildew  do  not  corrupt,  which  time 
does  not  dissipate  nor  use  destroy,  and  whereof  we  stand 
in  sorer  need  than  of  purple,  or  scarlet,  or  fine-twined  linen. 
A  long  way  this  side  of  our  grandmothers  we  find  bus- 
tling, energetic  women,  who  would  laugh  to  scorn  the  idea 
that  they  needed  any  help  in  transacting  their  household 
business.     But  then,  dear  ladies,  the  laugh  is  not  wholly  on 
your  side.     We  in  our  turn,  we  incapables,  laugh  to  scorn 
your  idea  of  life,  or,  if  we  do  not  laugh,  w^e  lament.     We 
think  you  utterly  fail  to  form  any  conception  of  the  true  mo- 
tives, methods,  and  ends  of  the  family  and  of  society.     We 
think  you  attain  the  less  only  by  sacrificing  the  greater — that 
all  this  strain  of  the  muscles  destroys  the  play  of  the  mind. 
Sometimes  your  work  is  really  but  half  done.     You  rush 
through  your  house  with  a  touch  and  go.     You  have  not 
even  an  ideal  of  domestic  comfort,  of  mere  material  purity. 
You  apparently  have  great  executive  ability,  but  its  finest 
feat  is  in  covering  your  manifold  defects  with  a  superficial 
decency.     Any  person  could  do  her  housework  who  could 
be  content  with  not  doing  it.     Or,  again,  you  are  a  marvel 
of  thoroughness.     You  are  all  "faculty."     You  are  the  town 
talk  for  thrift  and  industry.     You  rise  while  it  is  yet  dark, 
and  pride  yourself  on  having  your  breakfast  eaten    and 
cleared  away  before  six  o'clock.     All  very  well,  if  you  think 

C   2 


58  H^o man's  Worth 

it  is  a  cheerful  thing  to  do  in  our  cUmate.  Yours  may  be 
an  extreme  case,  but  it  is  like  Byron's  gentle  hill — the  cape 
of  a  long  ridge  of  such.  You  are  at  the  extreme,  but  there 
are  many  following  you  at  a  greater  or  less  distance.  But 
tell  us  what  you  do  with  your  time  after  you  have  thus 
taken  it  by  the  forelock.  Are  you  really  any  happier  ?  Do 
you  walk  on  a  higher  plane  than  we  who  like  to  begin  the 
day  with  sunshine  .?  Look  at  it,  good  friend.  Is  there  not 
something  left  out,  after  all  ?  Is  your  influence  upon  your 
husband  elevating  and  spiritualizing  ?  Do  you  help  him  to 
rise  above  his  material  occupations  into  the  regions  of 
thought  and  sentiment  ?  Do  you  study  into  the  hidden  na- 
ture of  your  children  ?  Do  you  thread  with  loving  watch  the 
labyrinths  of  their  little  life,  that  you  may  get  the  clew 
whereby  to  guide  them  through  no  winding  paths  into  a 
happy  and  honorable  maturity  ?  And  as  they  come  up  into 
youth,  into  young  manhood  and  maidenhood,  are  you  still 
to  them  the  personification  of  what  is  most  w^ise,  and  win- 
ning, and  w^orthy  in  human  character .? 

Are  you  of  the  first  consideration  in  your  house  .-*  While 
you  are  thinking  and  planning  for  the  others,  are  they  think- 
ing first  of  you  ?  Is  3^our  approbation  the  confirmation,  and 
your  disapproval  the  veto,  of  every  new  plan  ?  Is  your  house 
a  familiar  resting-place  for  weary  pilgrims  ?  Do  the  young 
people  of  your  circle  like  your  society,  come  to  you  for  ad- 
vice or  sympathy,  for  careless  chit-chat  and  serious  conver- 
sation ?  Do  men  and  women  of  mark  frequent  your  house, 
drawn  by  some  unseen  attraction  ?  Do  you  make  of  yom 
home  a  little  sunny  spot  of  greenery  in  the  great  wilderness 
of  the  world,  w^here  the  jaded  may  find  rest,  and  the  sorrow- 
ing consolation,  and  the  inert  stimulus,  and  the  merry  free 
play — whence  every  one  goes  out  a  little  fresher,  a  little 
brighter,  a  little  happier  than  he  came  in  ? 

And  look  at  yourself.     Alas  !  your  hands  are  bulging  at 


and  Worthlessness.  59 

the  joints,  hard  in  the  palms,  rough  as  to  the  finger-ends, 
spreading,  unshapely,  and  discolored,  active  enough  in  work, 
but  ruined  for  delicacy  and  grace.  But  a  woman's  hand 
should  be  soft,  and  white,  and  supple.  Heavens  !  what  her- 
esy is  this  !  What  laudation  of  luxury,  and  idleness,  and  gen- 
eral worthlessness  !  Let  me  say  it  again,  then.  A  woman's 
hand  should  be  white,  and  soft,  and  supple,  and  the  robbery 
of  grace  and  beauty  which  it  has  suffered  only  marks  the  loss 
of  so  much  grace  and  beauty  out  of  womanhood.  I  do  not 
say  that  a  woman  may  not  do  worse  than  have  hard  hands, 
and  a  face  and  form  disfigured  by  toil.  If  it  is  a  question 
of  life  or  death,  of  dishonorable  dependence  or  deforming 
labor,  there  is  but  one  choice.  Rather  there  is  no  choice. 
It  is  better  for  a  woman  to  sacrifice  her  soul  through  her 
body,  than  to  sacrifice  her  soul  outright  and  spare  her  beau- 
ty. In  the  first  case,  she  may  hope  to  save  something  from 
the  wreck  ;  in  the  second,  all  that  is  valuable  goes  down  to- 
gether. But  it  is  none  the  less  sacrifice.  If  you  must  de- 
stroy comeliness  and  grace  by  hard  work,  there  is  virtue  in 
doing  it  as  quietly  and  cheerfully  as  may  be.  If  you  do  it 
without  the  spur  of  necessity,  there  is  no  virtue  in  it  at  all. 
And  let  it  be  ever  remembered  and  rehearsed,  that  all  labor 
that  wears  upon  the  physical  frame,  or  mental  or  nervous 
power  of  woman,  whether  it  be  indoor  or  outdoor  labor,  is 
so  much  taken  away  from  her  children.  Whatever  deteri- 
orates her  deteriorates  her  offspring.  Through  inherited 
vigor  she  may  stand  all  the  wear  and  tear  after  a  fashion, 
but  there  is  imminent  danger  that  her  children  will  not  live 
out  half  their  days,  or  will  vex  their  allotted  time  with  an 
attenuated  existence.  Nothing  but  tranquillity,  and  high 
health,  and  happy  spirits,  added  to  the  royal  souls  of  moth- 
ers, can  give  us  the  brave,  grand  race  that  is  to  mark  and 
make  the  Golden  Year. 

The  perfect  woman  is  as  beautiful  as  she  is  strong,  as 


6o  Woman's  Worih 

tender  as  she  is  sensible.  She  is  cahn,  deHberate,  dignified, 
leisurely.  She  is  gay,  graceful,  sprightly,  sympathetic.  She 
is  severe  upon  occasion,  and  upon  occasion  playful.  She 
has  fancies,  dreams,  romances,  ideas.  Sometimes  her  skies 
are  clear,  like  the  cloudless  blue  of  winter;  but  sometimes 
they  are  hazy  and  vague,  like  the  Indian  summer  afternoon. 
She  is  never  idle,  but  she  sometimes  seems  to  be.  She  uses 
her  hands,  but  she  never  abuses  them.  She  commands  her 
children  and  her  household  after  her,  but  she  does  not 
drudge  for  them.  She  administers  the  government  of  her 
kingdom,  she  looheth  well  to  the  ways  of  her  fam.ily,  but  she 
never  eats  her  bread  in  the  sweat  of  her  brow.  Her  mind 
is  in  every  corner  of  her  house,  but  her  face  shines  chiefly 
where  husband,  and  children,  and  friends  sit  in  the  light 
thereof.  She  organizes  neatness,  and  order,  and  comfort, 
but  they  are  merely  the  foundation  whereon  rises  the  temple 
of  her  home,  beautiful  for  situation,  the  joy  of  the  whole 
earth. 

Thus  at  least  we  comfort  ourselves,  Hassan  and  I,  for  our 
foes  the  housekeepers,  who  look  down  upon  us. 

Since  it  can  not  be  denied  that  our  housekeeping  flagged 
wonderfully  after  the  first  few  days.  The  inspiration  seemed 
to  flutter  and  fade  as  we  receded  from  Professor  Blot,  and 
left  us  stranded  upon  a  cruel  shore  of  bare  flat  facts.  What 
is  there  to  the  kitchen  after  the  novelty  is  over  ?  When  you 
have  once  baked  a  potato  well,  that  is  the  end  of  it.  While 
the  world  stands  there  can  be  no  improvement.  As  like  as 
two  peas  in  a  pod,  says  the  proverb.  As  like  as  two  thou- 
sand peas  out  of  a  pod.  To  boil  pease  to-day  is  to  boil 
pease  to-morrow,  and  the  next  day,  and  forever,  till  their  salt 
has  lost  its  savor,  and  their  freshness  its  flavor,  and  your  soul 
loathes  the  sound  of  boiled  pease.  When  Sally  Lunn  has 
once  made  a  creditable  appearance  at  the  breakfast-table, 
you  desire  to  wash  your  hands  of  that  femme  passee  for  all 


and  Wortlikssness.  6 1 

time.  The  only  revival  of  interest  comes  with  a  new  guest. 
They  tell  you — the  good  moral  books  of  Advice  to  Young 
Housekeepers,  and  Mothers'  Aids — that  you  ought  to  serve 
yourself  just  as  you  serve  your  company.  You  will  then  be 
always  ready  to  welcome  and  enjoy  your  guests.  It  is  a 
good  rule  enough  ;  but,  though  the  spirit  be  willing,  the  flesh 
is  weak ;  and  I  have  found  that  agreeable  and  exhilarating 
guests  are  the  only  spur  which  the  clear  spirit  doth  raise  to 
get  any  kind  of  a  meal  after  the  first  two  or  three  times.  It 
creates  life  even  under  the  jacket  of  a  baked  potato  to  think 
that  somebody  you  love  will  eat  it.  There  is  real  pleasure 
in  making  your  table  inviting — in  bringing  out  for  your 
friend  something  a  little  remote  from  every-day  uses — some- 
thing a  little  finer,  a  little  rarer  than  is  cast  into  the  com- 
mon lot.  But  for  your  own  self,  bless  me  !  let  us  gnaw  any 
sort  of  a  crust,  and  have  done  with  it.  What  is  the  odds  ? 
You  get  a  dinner  for  the  family ;  it  is  gone  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye,  and  you  reflect  with  dismay  that  you  must  pace 
the  same  tread-mill  to-morrov/.  Or  it  is  let  severely  alone, 
and  you  know  that  something  is  burned,  or  water-soaked,  or 
under-done,  and  are  equally  brought  to  confusion. 

Hassan's  enthusiasm  ebbed  as  rapidly  as  mine.  He 
brought  down  newspapers,  and  read  them  surreptitiously  be- 
hind his  pile  of  cook-books.  Then  he  waxed  bolder,  and 
began  to  read  them  aloud  to  me.  We  all  know  it  is  nice  to 
be  read  aloud  to  when  you  are  rattling  about  amidst  the 
crockery.  You  are  likely  to  have  a  great  deal  of  sympathy 
with  the  Cuban  insurrectionists,  and  be  mightily  interested 
in  the  Suez  Canal,  when  the  chocolate  is  boiling,  and  the 
oatmeal  is  burning,  and  all  the  outside  doors  are  slamming. 
Finally  Hassan  showed  symptoms  of  deserting  the  kitchen 
altogether. 

"  Come,  it  is  half  past  seven,  and  I  must  go  and  get  break- 
fast," I  say,  decidedly,  after  many  futile  attempts. 


62  Wo7nafis  Worth 

"  Don't  rush,"  says  Hassan.    "  You  have  oceans  of  time." 

"But  it  is  half  past  seven." 

"  And  we  breakfast  at  nine.     You  have  a  good  hour  yet." 

"  But  there  are  the  eggs  to  boil,  and  the  toast  to  make—" 

"It  takes  just  three  minutes  for  the  eggs  to  boil,  and  al- 
low five  more  for  the  toast." 

And  then  he  goes  into  a  mathematical  calculation,  show- 
ing by  the  rule  of  three  that  fifteen  minutes  is  enough  to  get 
all  the  breakfast  in.  And  so  it  is — in  his  brain — nowhere 
else  ;  for,  though  I  never  can  detect  any  error  in  his  figures, 
it  is  a  matter  of  experience  that  breakfast  never  comes  in 
fifteen  minutes. 

And  your  neighbor  does — dear  little  kind-hearted  woman! 
But  she  will  come  round  by  the  back  door,  where  you  are  al- 
ready immeasurably  perplexed  because  the  tea-kettle  will 
not  boil.  Now  it  is  not  of  the  least  consequence  how  kind- 
hearted  people  are ;  they  ought  never  to  come  in  by  the 
back  door.  I  am  agonizing  over  the  tea-kettle  ;  but  that  is 
not  suspicious,  for  it  is  past  ten  ;  and  if  she  surmises  cook- 
ing she  will  think  it  is  dinner.  You  can  always  christen  a 
meal  according  to  the  hour  it  hits  nearest.  We  trip  around 
the  field  of  neighborhood  gossip  with  a  celerity  which  she 
probably  does  not  understand.  And  the  water  will  not  boil. 
And  I  can  not  go  into  the  dining-room  to  set  the  table. 
And  the  clock  is  ticking  on  toward  half  past  ten.  She  is  a 
dear  little  woman — but  if  she  only  would  go  !  Does  she  not 
see  how  abstracted  and  incoherent  I  am  ?  For  my  under- 
thought  will  protrude  into  my  surface  talk.  I  expect  every 
moment  Hassan  will  come  breezing  in  with, "  How  do  you 
make  it  on  the  breakfast .?"  And  then  we  are  lost.  Already 
I  hear  his  tramp  emerging  from  his  lair.  Light  breaks. 
"  Mrs.  Smith,  I  wish  you  would  go  out  with  me  and  take  a 
look  at  our  beans.  I  am  afraid  they  are  frost-killed."  Un- 
der-reflection, "  She  won't  come  in  again."    And  she  doesn't. 


and  Worthies sness.  d^, 

My  interest  in  the  beans  falls  away  as  soon  as  she  is  launched 
on  them,  and  I  gradually  edge  toward  the  house,  drawing  her 
after  me.  Will  she  pass  through  or  by  the  door  ?  Oh  joy ! 
she  makes  as  if  she  would  go  farther.  "Won't  you  come  in, 
Mrs.  Smith  ?"  Hypocrite  that  I  am — but  how  can  you  help 
it  ?  "  No,  thank  you  ;  I  believe  I  must  be  going."  And,  re- 
leased at  last,  I  make  another  descent  on  the  tea-kettle,  and 
suddenly  remember  that  I  forgot  to  put  in  the  wood  upon 
the  kindlings,  and  the  reason  why  the  water  does  not  boil  is 
that  the  fire  went  out  half  an  hour  ago. 

Such  is  life — in  the  kitchen.  Professor  Blot  may  garland 
it  with  roses,  and  put  a  bouquet  of  see-sawn-ing  in  its  hand  ; 
but  the  grinning,  mocking,  hideous  skeleton  is  still  there, 
and  will  not  be  lectured  or  lessoned  away. 


64  Woman's  Worth 


IV. 

THE  PURSUIT  OF  THE  FORTY  THOUSAND. 

"This  will  never  do,"  said  Hassan. 

"  No,"  I  replied  ;  "  it  is  flying  in  the  face  of  Providence." 

I  did  not  know  to  what  he  was  referring ;  but  it  is  always 
safe  to  strike  in  with  an  acquiescing  remark. 

"  Something  is  about  to  give  way,  and  we  must  have  a 
woman.     There  are  lots  of  them." 

"  Forty  thousand  in  the  city  of  New  York,  with  nothing 
to  do  but  come  out  in  the  newspapers  every  year  making 
shirts  at  six  cents  apiece  or  die." 

"  And  thirty  thousand  in  Massachusetts." 

"And  me  with  the  whole  world  to  reconstruct  on  entirely 
new  principles,  and  can't  get  at  it  for  the  barricades  of  bread- 
and-butter  that  rise  around  me." 

"  Exactly,  my  dear.  You  might  cry  with  the  sons  of  the 
prophets, '  There  is  death  in  the  pot !'  for  you,  while  to  these 
forty  thousand  it  might  be  life,  let  alone  that  our  planet 
would  immediately  turn  into  a  self-luminous  body  if  you 
could  but  have  free  play  for  a  few  minutes." 

"  What  is  the  good  of  talking  ?  The  facts  remain.  No 
hypothesis  regarding  a  millennium  relieves  in  the  smallest 
degree  the  pressure  of  existing  circumstances.  Doubtless 
the  Golden  Age  awaits  our  laggard  steps  ;  but  at  present  we 
are  hungry." 

"  It  is  always  well,  however,  to  take  a  dispassionate  view 
of  the  situation.  Put  the  case,  now,  you  were  cast  away  on 
a  desert  island  alone,  with  plenty  of  flour,  and  sugar,  and 
mutton-chops,  but  with  no  one  to  cook  them — all  your  spe- 


and  Worthies  sues  s.  65 

cific  dislikes  and  all  your  generic  inaptitudes  in  full  vigor. 
What  should  you  do  ?" 

"I  should  advertise." 

"  A  Daniel  come  to  judgment !" 

"  And  now  you  have  put  the  idea  into  my  mind,  why 
should  we  not  advertise  as  it  is  ?  I  think  we  are  as  near 
being  stranded  on  a  stern  and  rock-bound  coast  as  we  are 
likely  ever  to  be." 

"  What  good  did  our  former  advertising  do  us  ?" 

"  None  at  all,  because  we  did  not  advertise.  We  were 
merely  passive  recipients  of  the  arbitrary  wants  of  others. 
We  only  answered  advertisements.  I  believe  our  misfor- 
tunes are  a  judgment  upon  us  for  attempting  to  help  our- 
selves, and  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  the  forty  thousand  women 
in  New  York  who  are  crying  for  bread,  and  the  thirty  thou- 
sand of  Massachusetts,  who  may  be  a  little  better  off,  but 
who,  doubtless,  must  stint  themselves  in  butter.  Let  us  be 
no  longer  selfish,  but  humane.     Let  us  advertise." 

"There  is  a  possibility  that  these  seventy  thousand  may 
not  be  regular  subscribers  to  the  newspapers." 

"  But  at  the  houses  of  their  hard-hearted  employers  a 
newspaper  will  be  furnished  them  to  wrap  around  the  work 
they  are  to  carry  home ;  and,  bending  over  their  needle  at 
midnight,  their  eyes  will  fall  on  the  advertisement,  which  will 
bring  to  their  weary  hearts  a  glimpse  of  refuge ;  they  will 
deny  themselves  a  loaf  of  bread  to  buy  a  postage-stamp  and 
a  sheet  of  paper  to  send  us  a  letter ;  receiving  which,  we 
shall  immediately  remit  their  fare,  and  thus  secure  a  serv- 
ant for  ourselves,  with  the  happy  consciousness  that  we  have 
drawn  an  overburdened  fellow-mortal  out  of  the  Slough  of 
Despond." 

"  Bring  me  my  pen,"  cried  Hassan.  "  We  will  advertise 
instantly." 

We  sent  immediately  to  our  weekly  religious  and  our  dai- 
ly profane  newspaper : 


66  WomarCs  Worth 

WANTED — In  the  country,  thirty  miles  from  Elysium,  a  woman  to 
do  the  housework  for  a  family  of  two  persons. 

I  was  about  to  add,  instinctively,  "Widow  preferred,"  but 
recollected  myself  in  time.  We  must  delay  that  adjunct  till 
our  Chinese  brethren  favor  us  with  their  company  in  greater 
numbers  than  at  present. 

I  was  very  desirous  that  Hassan  should  engage  a  private 
secretary  to  read  and  answer  the  letters  which  our  advertise- 
ment would  elicit.  If  only  a  half,  or  even  a  thirtieth  of 
those  thirty  thousand  women  should  happen  to  see  this  ad- 
vertisement in  the  paper  that  wraps  their  work,  under  what 
piles  of  correspondence  should  we  groan  !  But  Hassan 
thought  that,  as  the  eight-hour  law  was  not  yet  in  force,  if 
we  should  rise  early  and  write  late,  we  might  perhaps  dis- 
pose of  the  bulk  of  the  correspondence  ourselves. 

It  turned  out  that  he  was  right.  Our  secular  advertise- 
ment brought  us  seven  answers  ;  our  religious  advertisemxCnt 
one  ;  so  that,  with  an  eight-hour  law  and  a  letter  an  hour, 
our  private  secretary  would  have  had  just  a  day's  v/ork. 

Even  the  eight  letters  were  seven  too  many  for  us.  We 
suffered  from  an  embarrassment  of  riches.  The  eight  writ- 
ers were  all  excellent  housekeepers,  neat,  economical,  versed 
in  cookery,  all  that  heart  could  desire.  How  eagerly,  if 
vainly,  we  wished  we  were  eight  families  instead  of  one,  or 
that  we  were  rich  enough  to  keep  eight  servants  !  But  when 
our  respondents  appeared  upon  the  scene,  we  were  startled 
to  observe  that  they  all  had  ailments,  and  most  of  them  in- 
fants. Apparently  the  talismanic  words  "  in  the  country" 
had  put  out  of  sight  the  fact  that  there  might  be  work  to 
do.  I  asked  Hassan  if  there  was  any  thing  in  the  adver- 
tisement that  looked  as  if  we  were  designing  to  establish  a 
Hospital  for  Incurables  or  a  Home  for  Little  Wanderers. 
It  would  appear  that  some  of  our  characteristic  benevolence 
must  have  crept  unawares  into  the  paper,  thus  to  have  drawn 


and  Worthlessness.  67 

out  the  maimed,  the  halt,  and  the  bUnd.  Perhaps  the  poor 
creatures  thought  a  breath  of  country  air  would  cure  them. 
Things  came  to  such  a  pass,  finally,  that  Hassan  bade  me 
henceforth  not  to  seek  of  our  applicants  their  qualifications 
for  the  situation,  but  to  ask  them  in  the  beginning  what 
were  their  complaints.  I  never  before  had  so  realizing  a 
sense  of  the  scriptural  truth  that  we  are  fearfully  and  won- 
derfully made.  Never  knew  I  how  complicated  an  inven- 
tion was  the  human  organism  till  I  thus  saw  the  number  of 
diseases  that  could  prey  upon  it.  Our  religious  respondent 
was  too  far  off  for  a  personal  interview ;  and,  in  the  faint 
hope  that  she  might  not  have  mistaken  us  for  an  Infirmary, 
we  sent  to  a  relative  living  in  her  city  to  know  if  he  could 
ascertain  the  character  and  capacity  of  Priscilla  Marquesa. 
He  replied  promptly  that  he  knew  Priscilla  well ;  that  she 
was,  in  fact,  one  of  his  own  patients  ;  that  she  usually  rallied 
a  little  in  the  summer,  and  during  these  revivals  she  might 
be  capable  of  taking  care  of  her  own  chamber.  We  might 
rely  upon  it  that  she  would  not  require  much  waiting  on,  ex- 
cept in  winter. 

We  were  neither  of  us  good  nurses,  and  there  is  no  doctor 
in  the  village.  We  therefore  declined  to  assume  the  respon- 
sibility of  Priscilla's  health. 

Mary  Ann  seemed  to  be  the  least  fragile  and  the  most 
promising,  and  she  had  only  one  orphan  nephew  of  three 
years  to  bring  with  her.  We  engaged  Mary  Ann.  She  was 
to  come  a  week  from  Wednesday — orphan  nephew — two 
dollars  a  week — stay  a  fortnight  on  trial ;  and  we  were  then 
to  decide  on  future  arrangements.  So  we  had  our  house- 
hold wheels  freshly  oiled  to  run  smoothly  on  Wednesday 
morning.  Tuesday  night  Mary  Ann  sent  word  that  her 
brother  had  decided  to  keep  house  again,  and  wanted  her, 
and  she  could  not  come.  Penelope  stood  next  on  the  list 
for  eligibility,  and  we  turned  to  Penelope.     Penelope  had 


68  Woman's  IVortk 

many  disorders,  but  no  children.  Penelope  replied  instant- 
ly that  she  would  come.  The  arrangement  was  the  same 
as  before — a  fortnight's  trial  previous  to  the  definite  engage- 
ment. She  was  to  come  next  Monday.  "  Is  it  an  engage- 
ment ?"  "  Yes,  it  is  an  engagement,"  says  Penelope  ;  "  and 
I  never  break  my  word."  Friday  comes  a  letter  from  Pe- 
nelope, saying  only  this  and  nothing  more :  "  I  have  con- 
cluded not  to  work  for  you." 

"  It  is  the  curse  of  Kehama,"  I  said  to  Hassan.  "  The 
orphans  shall  see  thee,  and  know  thee,  and  fly  thee.  The 
aunts  shall  not  touch  thee  when  they  pass  by  thee." 

The  next  was  a  stout  Irish  lassie.  She  surveyed  us  cool- 
ly and  critically  from  garret  to  cellar.  We  seemed  to  find 
favor  in  her  eyes.  She  was  graciously  pleased  to  remark 
that  the  house  was  pleasant  and  convajiient  iox  work,  though 
I  must  admit  that  never  did  the  ceilings  seem  so  low,  or  the 
carpets  so  faded,  or  the  whole  aspect  of  the  establishment 
so  ungenteel,  as  while  undergoing  her  inspection.  But  she 
condescended  to  our  low  estate.  She  was  very  good-na- 
tured, and  said  she  would  come  Sunday  night.  The  Wednes- 
day after  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  her  Magenta  gown  among 
the  poplars  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off,  and  in  process  of  time 
our  little  lad  brought  word  that  Ellen  told  him  to  tell  us  she 
had  got  a  place  in  the  city. 

But  Elfleda  came.  Oh,  heavens !  Elfleda  is  the  kind 
that  always  comes.  Poor  dear  !  with  her  dark,  drawn  face, 
her  thin,  bent  figure,  her  unrestful  eyes,  her  poor^  wan,  puny 
baby  boy !  How  many  bones  do  the  pliysiologists  tell  us 
there  are  in  the  human  system  ?  Two  hundred  and  some- 
thing? I  have  not  a  doubt  of  it.  Elfleda  had  them  all,  and 
every  one  ached  ;  and,  what  is  remarkable,  not  on^y  had 
each  one  its  separate  and  peculiar  twinge,  but  there  seemed 
to  be  also  a  sort  of  double-back-acting  machinery  by  which 
they  all  ached  in  concert  with  an  entirely  distinct  and  well- 


and  Worthkssness.  69 

defined  pang.  We  did  not  find  it  out  till  she  was  safely- 
housed  under  our  roof;  then  we  discovered,  to  our  dismay, 
that  she  creaked  every  time  she  moved.  I  do  think — but  I 
never  suggested  it  to  her — that  all  the  lubricating  oil  must 
have  been  washed  out  of  her  joints  by  the  multiplicity  of  her 
douches  and  sitz  baths.  What  are  douches  and  sitz  baths, 
I  wonder  ?  I  only  know  that  we  seemed  to  be  living  under 
a  dispensation  of  them,  and  our  tubs  never  got  a  holiday 
v/hile  she  was  with  us.  Do  I  seem  to  be  making  a  mock  at 
misfortune  "i  Alas !  I  pitied  her  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart.  But  why  should  one  drown  one's  self  alive  ?  Neither 
the  sufferings  of  the  body  nor  the  sins  of  the  soul  can  be 
swept  away  by  a  flood.  Because  you  have  a  pump  in  the 
sink,  need  you  live  under  the  pump-nose  ? 

Elfleda's  conversation  was  cheerful  and  instructive,  equal- 
ly divided  between  minute  and  graphic  descriptions  of  the 
diseases  with  which  she  had  grappled  and  the  remedies 
thereunto  appertaining,  and  the  diseases,  remedie?,  and  vir- 
tues of  her  departed  consort.  And  what  a  temper  she  had  ! 
We  always  spoke  of  her  as  "the  angel."  I  constantly  kept 
her  before  Hassan  as  a  model  and  a  rebuke.  When  she 
was  in  the  very  act  of  holding  forth  upon  her  pet  themes 
you  could  interrupt  her  without  ruffling  in  the  least  that 
saintly  temper.  This  was  a  fortunate  discovery  for  me.  Of 
course  we  are  all  brought  up  to  hold  it  impolite  to  interrupt 
an  interlocutor,  or  even  abruptly  to  change  the  subject  upon 
which  he  is  discoursing.  It  requires  sometimes  no  small 
degree  of  ingenuity  to  construct  a  gently-inclined  plane 
along  which  to  conduct  him  imperceptibly  from  his  subject 
to  your  own.  A  goodly  amount  of  such  carpentry  was  per- 
formed with  Elfleda  during  the  early  days  of  our  connection, 
but  it  was  love's  labor  lost,  for  she  could  step  from  one 
subject  directly  upon  another  without  the  least  apparent 
moral  jerk  or  jar.     Picture  the  heavenly-mindedness  of  a 


70  Woman's  Worth 

woman  who,  having  lovingly  led  her  story  along  through  the 
febrile,  symptomatic  stages,  and  finally  got  the  most  malig- 
nant small-pox  under  full  headway,  will  allow  you  to  break 
in,  just  as  the  malady  is  about  to  break  out,  with,  "  Now  let 
us  have  one  pan  of  hot  biscuit  for  breakfast,  and  the  rest  in 
loaves.     And  is  there  milk  enough  for  the  chocolate  ?" 

Yes.  And  that  martyr  would  let  go  the  small-pox,  turn 
right  about  face,  and  immediately  begin  to  descant  upon 
chocolate  and  biscuit,  and  the  peculiar  varieties  of  both — 
which  had  been  dear  to  her  late  espoused  saint — with  as 
much  sweetness  and  fervor  as  if  that  had  been  the  subject 
she  started  out  on.  And  all  the  while  I  am  surreptitiously 
slipping  through  the  door,  and  edging  through  the  dining- 
room,  and  backing  up  stairs,  she  following  unconsciously 
with  her  innocent  gush  of  talk,  and  me  responding  hypocrit- 
ically with  "Yes  !"  and  "  Why  !"  and  unmeaning  smiles,  till 
my  foot  is  on  the  top  stair,  when  I  shatter  her  remainder 
biscuit  with  a  sudden  "  Good-night,  Elfleda !"  and  dart  out 
of  sight.  "  Good-night !"  replies  the  cherub,  cheerful  and 
content,  and  trots  back  to  baby  and  biscuits. 

But  those  biscuits  were  the  perfection  of  delicacy.  They 
would  have  enraptured  Matthevv^  Arnold  with  their  "  sweet- 
ness and  light."  And  she  somehow  gilded  their  refined  gold 
by  painting  their  lily  whiteness  with  butter  before  she  put 
them  in  the  oven,  so  that  their  crust  was  a  delicious  crisp. 

Her  clear-starching  was  as  perfect  as  her  biscuit,  and 
would  rival  the  frosty  Caucasus.  Her  honesty  would  have 
snuffed  out  the  candle  of  Diogenes.  Her  neatness  was,  as 
I  have  before  intimated,  a  heavy  drain  upon  the  tubs.  What 
could  our  grief  be  ?  Alas  !  An  unconquerable  incapacity 
neutralized  every  advantage.  Breakfast  was  delicious,  but 
it  never  came.  Dinner  was  the  Head -Centre  of  delay. 
Washing  drizzled  along  till  Thursday,  and  the  last  of  the 
ironing  dawdled  up  stairs  on  Sunday  morning.     You  were 


and  Worthkssness.  7 1 

sure  of  nothing.  The  breakfast  dishes  gathered  in  the  sink, 
swelled  with  relays  from  the  dinner-table,  and  finally  over- 
flowed upon  the  kitchen  chairs.  Imagine  the  thrill  of  hor- 
ror that  would  curdle  a  New  England  village  at  rumor  of 
such  doings  !  True,  we  lived ;  but  nothing  was  finished. 
As  gossips  say,  the  work  was  never  "done  up,"  Yet  that 
saintly  temper  did  not  fail.  You  might  go  down  at  ten 
o'clock  of  a  July  night  and  find  her  with  a  red-hot  fire,  a 
crate  of  unwashed  crockery,  and  a  soul  as  serene  as  if  she 
were  only  listening  to  the  songs  of  nightingales.  Her  furi- 
ous fires,  raging  through  the  long  summer  days,  told  fear- 
fully upon  our  fuel.  I  walked  over  to  my  friend,  the  soft- 
voiced  forester,  and  begged  him  to  replenish  our  exhausted 
wood-house. 

"  You  don't  mean  to  say  your  wood  is  all  gone  ?" 

"Indeed  I  do." 

"  Not  all  that  I  cut  up  last  winter  and  put  into  the  barn  ?" 

"Every  stick  of  it.  We  have  been  living  off  the  old  fence 
these  three  days,  and  have  now  begun  on  the  pitchforks  and 
hoe-handles." 

"Well,  I  won't  say  you're  extravagant,  but,  by  gorry! 
you've  done  well." 

Poor,  dear  Elfleda ! 

In  this  irritable,  exacting,  rampageous  world  it  would  seem 
hardly  credible  that  there  could  be  such  a  thing  as  not  hav- 
ing temper  enough ;  but  if  there  be  such  a  thing,  its  name 
is  Elfleda.  It  was  impossible  to  keep  her,  and  equally  im- 
possible— if  I  may  employ  a  euphuistic  Gallicism — to  disem- 
barrass one's  self  of  her.  You  can  not  scold  a  mother  of 
children.  That  sacred  suffering  and  service  interpose  a  bar- 
rier which  no  superiority  of  position,  attainment,  or  charac- 
ter can  break  down  or  override.  To  any  gentle  hint  of  dis- 
satisfaction Elfleda  presented  a  voluble  and  valid  excuse,  or 
a  flood  of  tears,  heart-rent  and  heart-rending.     W^hat  can 


72  Woman's  Worth 

you  do  ?  The  baby — and  this  was  a  constant,  solid  com- 
fort— waxed  fat,  and  kicked.  Abundant  sunshine,  pure  air, 
and  fresh  milk  puffed  out  his  thin,  sad,  pitiful  cheeks  into 
laughing,  dimpled,  charming  plumpness.  He  crept  out- 
doors,  delighted,  among  the  birds,  and  bugs,  and  hop-toads, 
whenever  a  door  was  left  open.  He  took  contented  little 
naps  on  the  piazza,  while  the  cat  and  hens  gathered  in  friend- 
ly conclave  to  claw  and  peck  the  gingerbread  from  his  chub- 
by fists.  He  went  through  a  lung  fever  on  the  door-step, 
and  throve  mightily  in  all  ways ;  and  Elfleda  turned  a  deaf 
ear  to  any  suggestions  of  departure,  as  if  they  had  been 
temptations  of  the  adversary.  No  one  could  have  the  heart 
to  set  her  adrift  on  the  great  wide  wild  world  again,  and  we 
bestirred  ourselves  to  find  her  a  harbor.  We  recommended 
her  to  all  the  neighbors  in  every  capacity  under  heaven,  from 
wet-nurse  to  Universalist  minister,  and  they  snapped  their 
fingers  at  us.  We  cut  down  her  wages  to  starvation  rate. 
There  is  no  available  villainy  in  the  calendar  of  crime  which 
I  did  not  perpetrate  against  her,  and  all  in  vain.  If  a  new 
hospital  had  not  been  opened  in  a  neighboring  county,  I  be- 
lieve her  boy  would  have  cast  his  first  vote  in  our  town  in 
spite  of  us.  That  hospital  may  or  may  not  be  an  eleemosy- 
nary or  a  pecuniary  success,  but  it  was  our  salvation ;  and 
if  we  ever  inherit  a  fortune,  we  mean  to  put  that  establish- 
ment on  a  princely  foundation.  The  first  mention  of  it  sug- 
gested a  way  of  escape  for  Elfleda.  If  there  be  any  inherent 
and  eternal  fitness  of  things,  Elfleda  and  a  hospital  were 
made  for  each  other.  If  there  be  any  inherent  unfitness,  ii 
lay  between  Elfleda  and  ourselves ;  for  Hassan  and  I  both 
distinctly  remember  that  our  last  sensation  of  illness  was 
when  we  were  teething.  The  prospect  of  rioting  in  douches 
and  sitz  baths,  of  unlimited  revels  among  fevers  and  lotions, 
blue  pills  and  bluer  patients,  touched  the  weak  spot  in  El- 
fleda's  character ;   and  as  I  painted  in  glowing  colors  the 


ana  Worthkssness.  73 

gay  and  festive  scenes  on  which  she  would  enter  if  she  could 
become  nurse  or  matron  in  such  an  institution,  the  light  act- 
ually sparkled  in  her  faded  eyes,  and  her  poor  thin  hair 
seemed  to  crinkle  with  ecstasy.  So  she  went  to  glory,  as 
you  may  say. 

But  I  was  not  thus  to  be  baffled.  If  the  forty  thousand 
would  not  come  to  me,  I  would  go  to  the  forty  thousand. 
Any  thing  is  better  than  to  sit  moaning  among  the  flesh- 
pots  of  Egypt,  with  thirty  thousand  women  starving  over  the 
needle  in  Massachusetts,  and  forty  thousand  more  in  New 
York. 

I  arose  and  went  to  Boston. 

I  inquired  for  thirty  thousand  anxious  and  aimless  women 
making  shirts  at  six  cents  a  piece.  People  stared,  and  di- 
rected me  to  the  employment  offices. 

The  first  one  was  presided  over  by  a  lady,  tall,  slender, 
delicate,  and  refined  in  appearance — a  pretty,  gentle  woman 
of  culture  and  character  apparently  ;  but  the  air  she  breathed 
was  horrible  for  any  human  being,  let  alone  a  lady.  How- 
ever, there  is  a  choice  in  features  ;  and  when  you  go  on  a 
mission  of  this  sort,  you  can  give  up  your  nose  and  take  to 
your  e3^es.  The  domain  over  which  this  sovereign  lady  pre- 
sided was  two  rooms — one  very  large,  the  other  smaller. 
Every  seat  in  the  larger  room  was  occupied  by  women  want- 
ing places.  The  smaller  room  was  frequented,  and  some- 
times thronged,  by  women  wanting  servants.  The  situation 
was  appalling.  It  was  my  first  experience  of  an  employ- 
ment office.  I  paused  at  the  open  door  between  the  two 
rooms,  and  looked  in  upon  the  congregated  waiting-women. 
Such  an  array  of  coarse,  ignorant,  unintelligent,  unhelpful 
faces  ;  such  stolid  indifference  ;  such  unshrinking  self-asser- 
tion ;  such  rude,  brawny,  worthless  womanhood  !  My  very 
heart  and  soul  misgave  me — misgave  me  for  home,  and 
family,  and  country,  and  future.     Who  can  make  a  home 

D 


74  Woman^s  Worth 

with  such  raw  material  as  this  in  the  heart  of  it  ?  It  was 
not  mere  domestic  inefficiency  that  confounded  me,  but  a 
far  deeper — an  organic,  inherent  incapacity  that  seemed  not 
soluble,  nor  malleable,  nor  pliable,  nor  able  in  any  way  to 
be  wrought,  by  any  known  agent  in  moral  chemistry,  me- 
chanics, or  alchemy,  into  a  sympathetic  member  of  a  Chris- 
tian family.  Of  the  scores  that  sat  there,  silent,  chatting, 
listless,  watchful,  not  one  but  seemed  bold  or  stupid,  crude, 
repellant,  and  utterly  alien.  I  speak  only  of  appearances. 
Doubtless  under  the  harsh  exterior  were  the  germs  of  gen- 
tleness, fidelity,  truth,  modesty,  courage  —  all  human  and 
womanly  qualities,  but  dwarfed  and  crowded  out  of  sight  by 
unrelenting  circumstance,  by  bitterly  cruel  fate.  Doubtless 
patience  and  self-sacrifice,  uncalculating  love  and  uncom- 
plaining sorrow,  had  mellowed  and  moulded  many  a  poor 
soul  before  me.  But  all  that  I  saw  was  an  army  of  Ama- 
zons, who  seemed  conscious  alike  of  their  strength  and  their 
worthlessness,  and  equally  to  exult  in  both.  It  was  as  if 
they  knew  their  inadequacy  to  household  service,  yet  knew 
also  that  the  call  for  household  servants  was  so  exceeding 
great  and  bitter  a  cry  that  it  quite  drowned  any  call  for  im- 
provement on  their  part.  They  were  blundering,  awkward, 
and  incompetent ;  but  they  are  all  we  can  get,  and  they 
know  it.  They  control  the  market,  and  we  must  take  them 
not  simply  with  the  grain  of  salt,  but  with  the  whole  pillar 
of  it.  I  was  shocked  to  find  suddenly  springing  up  in  my 
heart  a  sort  of  hate  and  hostility  toward  them.  A  distaste 
for  republicanism  and  individual  liberty,  a  longing  for  an 
absolute  monarchy  came  over  me,  in  which  I  should  be  ab- 
solute monarch.  I  hungered  to  have  authority  over  them, 
rank,  rampant  weeds  as  they  were  ;  to  transplant  them  and 
train  them,  with  hoe,  and  knife,  and  trowel,  and  trellis,  into 
sightly  flowers,  and  wholesome,  honest  vegetables.  Why 
should  they  be  allowed  this  wild,  vicious  growth  ?     Wages  1 


a;id  Worthless ness.  75 

These  clumsy,  unskillful  fingers,  these  inert,  heavy  brains 
demanding  wages,  when  they  should  be  only  too  thankful  to 
be  tolerated  under  tuition  !  Oh  for  one  hour  of  tyranny — 
one  hour  of  autocratic,  irresponsible  power,  such  as  we  knew 
in  the  halcyon  days  of  slavery,  to  make  these  unprofitable 
servants  feel  their  ignorance,  and  force  them  to  overcome 
it !  But  the  spirit  of  Seventy-six,  the  instincts  of  three  gen- 
erations of  freedom,  came  quickly  back,  and  suggested  that 
moral  disease  is  not  to  be  homeopathically  treated.  It  is 
tyranny  that  has  wrought  the  mischief  which  tyranny  can 
not  cure.  It  is  slavery,  not  liberty,  that  gave  these  sluggish 
brains  and  stolid  faces.  More  than  this,  it  is  liberty's  late- 
coming  that  brings  this  irritating  exultation,  this  brazen  and 
ill-timed  content  with  ignorance  and  inefficiency.  Over  and 
over  came  to  me  the  still  small  voice, "  God  hath  made  of 
one  blood,  one  blood,  one  blood,  all  the  nations  of  the  earth." 
One  blood.  I  pinched  my  own  poor  useless  hands  black 
and  blue  in  the  effort  to  impress  upon  them  that  they  were 
one  blood — one  blood  with  the  big,  bare,  sinewy,  shapeless 
hands  around  me.  And  religion,  patriotism,  and  pinching, 
all  together,  they  did  not  more  than  half  feel  it.  The  other 
half  kept  saying,  "  Head  of  fine  gold,  feet  of  iron  and  clay. 
We  are  the  head  of  fine  gold  ;  yoii  are  the  iron  and  the 
clay." 

I  should  be  sorry  even  to  be  thought  pandering  in  the 
smallest  degree  to  class  prejudices,  and  I  know  that  mis- 
tresses are  often  as  much  to  blame  as  maids  for  the  disor- 
der and  misrule  that  prevail  in  our  domestic  kingdoms  ; 
but  certainly  the  mistresses  that  I  saw  at  this  employment 
office  were  innocent-looking  women  enough — such  women 
as  I  would  not  have  hesitated  to  take  service  with  were  I  in 
search  of  a  situation.  Some  of  them  were  evidently  ladies 
of  wealth  and  fashion  ;  some — most  of  them — apparently  of 
modest  means  and  mien.     There  was,  at  least,  no  display 


76  Woman's  Worth 

of  imperiousness,  unreasonableness,  inconsiderateness,  or 
any  form  of  bad  manners.  On  the  contrary,  the  signs  of 
cultivation  and  courtesy  were  as  marked  in  the  one  room  as 
was  their  absence  in  the  other.  Equally  marked,  also,  was 
the  difference  between  the  wants  of  mistress  and  maid.  The 
former  seemed  chiefly  concerned  about  qualifications ;  the 
latter  regarded  only  price.  These  servants  betrayed  no  mis- 
giving of  their  ability  to  fulfill  any  duty  whatever — indeed, 
no  conscience  or  consciousness  of  the  existence  of  such  a 
thing  as  duty  or  faith  in  service.  The  main  question  was, 
"What  do  you  pay?"  On  two  points  they  were  invulnera- 
ble. They  would  not  budge  an  inch  into  the  country,  and 
they  would  not  budge  an  inch  any  where  for  less  than  three 
dollars  a  week.  This  I  learned  by  listening  before  making 
inquiries  of  my  own.  One  lady  was  very  desirous  to  secure 
a  certain  girl  whose  look  pleased  her,  and  she  tried  to  move 
the  obdurate  Milesian  heart  by  representing  her  family  as 
small  and  the  work  light ;  but  it  availed  nothing  when  she 
was  obliged  to  add,  "  But  my  husband  says  he  can  not  pay 
more  than  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  week." 

I  must  here  turn  aside  from  the  high  road  to  enter  my 
protest  against  this  form  of  speech.  It  is  a  slight  matter  in 
itself,  but  it  indicates  and  fosters  a  wrong  state  of  affairs  in 
the  household.  "  My  husband  says  he  can  not  pay  !"  Is  the 
husband,  then,  one  firm,  and  the  wife  another,  or  are  they 
joint  members  of  the  same  company  ?  Does  the  husband 
own  the  establishment  and  disburse  the  income,  as  an  irre- 
sponsible monarch,  and  is  the  wife  simply  his  subordinate  ? 
If  so,  she  is  just  as  much  to  blame  as  he.  The  husband  is, 
or  ought  to  be,  the  active  partner  in  the  business  manage- 
ment of  the  concern,  and  the  wife  must,  of  course,  depend 
chiefly  upon  his  word  for  knowledge  of  its  financial  condi- 
tion. But  that  knowledge,  once  communicated  to  her,  is  her 
own.     That  financial  condition,  whatever  it  be,  is  hers  as 


and  Worthlessness.  77 

much  as  his ;  and  it  is  as  much  beneath  her  dignity  to  say 
to  her  servant, "  My  husband  says  he  can  only  pay  so  much," 
as  it  would  be  beneath  her  husband's  dignity  to  dismiss  his 
clerk  on  the  ground  that  "  My  wife  says  she  can  only  pay 
you  so  much."  If  the  husband  has  been  delegated  to  hire 
the  servant,  it  is  proper  enough ;  it  is,  at  least,  not  severely 
reprehensible  for  him  to  arrogate  to  himself  a  little  sem- 
blance of  authority,  and,  having  received  due  instructions 
from  his  wife,  to  say,  "/will  pay  thus  and  so."  If  the  wife 
is  transacting  the  business  herself,  no  power  on  earth  should 
be  strong  enough  to  make  her  say  any  thing  but  "/will  do 
this  and  that."  Where  husband  and  wife  stand  toward  each 
other  as  they  ought,  these  little  matters  adjust  themselves 
without  friction.  My  remarks  are  intended  for  the  ninety- 
and-nine  whose  relations  to  each  other  need  to  be  recon- 
structed. 

The  few  men  who  came  into  this  employment  office  on 
domestic  errand  bent  made  but  a  sorry  figure.  They  looked 
and  felt  so  out  of  place  that  one  could  but  pity  them.  They 
stood  around  with  their  hats  in  their  hands,  trying  not  to  be 
in  the  way — the  great,  innocent,  helpless,  good-natured, good- 
for-nothing  creatures  ;  shrinking  up  into  corners,  swept  past 
by  silks,  drowned  in  flounces  and  laces,  holding  their  hats 
high  above  their  heads  in  the  last  gasp  of  self-sacrifice,  awed 
by  the  mistresses,  cowed  by  the  maids,  and  utterly  ground 
into  insignificance.  One,  a  country  clergyman,  was  attempt- 
ing, with  a  very  moderate  degree  of  success,  to  measure 
swords  with  a  swarthy  middle-aged  woman,  short,  stout,  in- 
describably hard-featured,  and  unrelenting.  His  educated 
and  slightly  professional  voice,  toned  down  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  occasion,  mingled  pathetically  with  her  harsh, 
unmitigated  monotone.  Doubtless  he  fancied  he  was  secur- 
ing a  servant,  but  the  unprejudiced  by-stander  could  but  ad- 
mire at  the   assurance  with  which  she  was  securing  him. 


78  lVo?nati's  Worth 

She  carried  things  with  a  high  hand.  He  made  a  feeble  ef- 
fort to  engage  her  on  trial  for  two  dollars  and  a  half.  But, 
oh  no !  oh  no !  This  was  a  thing  not  dreamed  of  in  my 
lady's  philosophy.  It  was  three  dollars  a  week  or  nothing. 
And  having  guaranteed  all  her  vested  rights  to  attend  church 
and  not  to  attend  children,  her  evenings  out,  and  other  con- 
stitutional prerogatives,  he  walked  off  with  his  prize.  I  pic- 
tured to  myself  the  dismay  with  which  some  worn  woman, 
dainty  housekeeper,  careful  mother,  delicate  lady,  would  see 
her  husband  marching  into  the  house  with  this  tawny  bar- 
barian in  tow. 

The  beauty  of  it  was,  that  by  the  time  it  came  my  turn,  I 
was  ready.  They  would  not  go  into  the  country,  would  they  .^ 
Heavens  !  No  country  that  I  knew  any  thing  about  would 
hold  them  !  The  gentle  -  faced  queen  -  mother  circulated 
through  her  droning  hive,  and  brought  up  to  me  one  and  an- 
other of  her  unpromising  subjects  who  were  supposed  not  to 
have  insurmountable  objections  to  "going  into  the  country." 

"  An'  what  is  yer  pay,  mum  ?"  begin  my  interlocutors. 

To  which,  with  all  the  suavity  I  can  summon,  I  make  re- 
sponse, "  That  will  depend  entirely  on  what  you  do.  If  you 
suit  me,  I  will  pay  you  the  full  price.  If  you  do  not  suit  me, 
I  shall  not  care  for  3-our  services  at  all." 

Tliis  seems  to  strike  them  as  an  entirely  new  view  of  the 
subject.  The  idea  of  suitability  seems  never  to  have  found 
lodgment  in  their  brains,  and  they  are  not  prepared  for  it. 
They  go  nowhere  on  probation.  They  serve  no  apprentice- 
ship. 

"  What  is  your  family,  mum  ?"  inquires  one,  when  she  has 
recovered  breath  from  the  surprise  of  learning  that  there  is 
a  power  of  choice  on  the  other  side. 

*'/  am  my  family,"  is  the  impressive  reply.  (^Vempire 
c'est  moil) 

"Likely  you  don't  have  much  company." 


and  WortJilessness.  79 

I  do  not  know  why  she  considers  it  likely  I  don't  have 
much  company,  unless  she  has  conceived  as  unfavorable  an 
opinion  of  me  as  I  have  of  her,  and  I  assure  her  solemnly 
that  I  have  all  the  company  I  can  get.  It  is  needless  to 
say  we  part  with  mutual  satisfaction. 

Certainly  my  thirty  thousand  women  are  not  starving  in 
this  office. 

We  went  to  another  intelligence  office  with  no  better  suc- 
cess. The  lady  abbess  was  a  florid,  flourishing  woman, 
admirably  adapted  to  her  calling,  and  not  backward  in  ex- 
pressing her  mind  freely  to  both  classes  of  her  customers, 
in  a  manner  pleasant  to  witness,  though  it  bore  no  visible 
fruit.  Neither  persuasion  nor  denunciation  could  induce 
her  girls  to  go  into  the  country.  And  while  we  were  yet 
speaking,  a  buxom  maiden  came  up,  and  reported  herself  in 
the  market. 

"  Why,  you  have  but  just  gone  !"  exclaimed  madam,  in  sur- 
prise.    "  Couldn't  you  find  the  place  ?" 

"  Yes,  mum.  But  the  lady  would  not  pay  but  two  dollars 
and  a  half,  and  I  wouldn't  stay  for  that." 

"  More  fool  you  !"  was  the  pithy  comment,  as  the  girl  was 
summarily  dispatched  to  the  waiting-room  again. 

Evidently  an  intelligence  office  is  the  last  place  in  the 
world  to  look  for  intelligence.  We  must  push  our  research- 
es on  a  higher  plane.  Is  there  not  a  Christian  Young  Wom- 
an's Home,  or  some  such  benevolent  invention,  where  young 
women  from  the  country  can  find  a  cheap,  comfortable,  and 
respectable  boarding-house  while  they  are  looking  for  em- 
ployment 1  This  is  the  place  where  working-women  of  the 
better  class  would  be  likely  to  resort  for  the  suppression  of 
starvation.  Irish  women  do  not  starve.  Look  at  their  col- 
or and  their  muscles  !  It  is  our  high-spirited  American 
women  who  follow  that  occupation.  Look  at  their  lack  of 
color  and  muscle  !     He  that  goeth  in  search  of  the  rich  and 


8o  Wo7naJi's  Worth 

powerful  Irish  shall,  of  course,  not  prosper  ;  but  he  that  fol 
loweth  after  Americans  shall  have  poverty  enough  on  his 
hands  to  employ  all  his  resources  in  its  relief. 

We  sought  and  found  the  Home  for  Christian  Young 
Women.  A  single  Christian  young  woman  was  sitting  in 
a  comfortable  room,  waiting  the  hegira  of  young  women  from 
the  country,  which  had  evidently  not  yet  begun.  I  laid  my 
errand  before  her.  She  did  not  k7iow  of  any  person  now 
wdio  would  be  willing  to  engage  in  household  service,  though 
they  did  sometimes  have  applications  for  work  of  that  sort. 
Generally  the  young  women  who  came  to  them  wanted  em- 
ployment in  stores  and  offices  as  saleswomen,  book-keepers, 
and  copyists. 

"Where  do  the  thirty  thousand  starving  sewing-women 
mostly  go  to  ?"  I  asked,  steadfastly. 

"  To  heaven,  let  us  hope,"  said  Hassan,  under  his  breath. 

The  Christian  young  woman,  who  was  a  very  nice  person 
too,  looked  at  me  inquiringly.  I  explained  the  secondary 
object  of  my  search.  She  smiled,  comprehending  the  situa- 
tion at  once,  and  said  she  knew  there  were  rumors  of  a  great 
deal  of  suffering,  which  undoubtedly  did  exist,  and  which 
ought  not  to  exist.  But  the  girls  would  go  into  shops,  and 
would  not  go  into  families,  and  what  could  you  do.? 

Unquestionably  nothing — only  look  over  the  Home,  which 
was  still  in  the  experimental  stage,  and  which  was  decent 
enough,  so  far  as  decency  consists  with  sleeping  four  in  a 
room,  and  which  was  apparently  planned  and  conducted 
with  the  honest  intent  to  be  useful.  We  gave  it  the  meed 
of  our  approbation,  if  that  can  be  called  approbation  which 
is  founded  on  an  examination  so  slight ;  and  having  agreed 
that  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Starving  did  not  rendezvous 
here,  we  were  on  the  point  of  leaving,  when  we  were  called 
back  by  the  announcement  that  a  woman  had  just  come  in 
who  might  prove  to  be  precisely  what  we  wanted.     She  was 


and  Worthkssridss.  8i 

a  tall,  muscular  Christian,  with  high  cheek-bones,  and  great 
facility  in  the  use  of  language,  and  was  accompanied  by  a 
young  Christian  of  the  same  persuasion,  perhaps  fourteen  or 
fifteen  years  old.  The  two  forces  were  marshaled  face  to 
face,  and,  in  reply  to  the  first  tentative  inquiry,  she  poured 
forth  torrents  of  information.  She  had  been  accustomed  to 
living  out,  and,  in  fact,  was  then  living  out ;  but  she  wished 
to  change  her  place.  She  would  tell  us  the  whole  story,  for 
she  had  nothing  to  keep  back.  She  worked  for  a  living, 
and  she  wasn't  ashamed  of  it.  She  came  from  up  country. 
Her  father  was  well  off,  but  the  fact  was  he  vvas  penurious. 
And  then  she  had  a  step-mother,  who  made  matters  worse, 
and  she  could  not  live  in  any  peace  at  home.  And  her  fa- 
ther died  and  made  a  will  ("  Made  a  will  and  died,"  mutter- 
ed Hassan ;  but  it  was  a  pebble  against  the  tide),  leaving 
her  something — no  great — not  enough  to  support  her.  But 
her  step-mother  would  do  nothing  for  her,  because  she  had  a 
will — would  not  even  let  her  live  in  the  house.  And  she 
had  this  child  to  support,  and  she  had  to  work  to  help  out. 
She  could  do  housework  best,  because  the  child  could  stay 
with  her.  It  was  her  sister's  chikl ;  her  sister  was  dead, 
arid  she  had  always  taken  care  of  the  girl  since  she  was  a 
baby.  She  was  a  lawful,  legitimate  child,  and  as  good  a  girl 
as  ever  stepped,  and  had  never  been  away  from  her.  She 
was  fourteen  years  old,  and  must  have  an  education  ;  and 
she  wanted  to  be  where  the  child  could  live  with  her  and  go 
to  school.  It  was  suggested  that  the  girl  might  get  a  place 
near  her  aunt,  where  she  might  work  enough  to  earn  her 
board  and  go  to  school  at  the  same  time.  But  no  ;  they 
had  never  been  separated,  and  she  must  have  the  girl  with 
her  where  she  could  see  to  her.  People  might  impose  upon 
a  girl  of  that  age  if  they  had  the  chance.  Her  price  was 
three  dollars  a  week,  and  the  girl  thrown  in.  What  she 
should  like  was  to  keep  house  for  a  widower  or  an  old  bach. 

D2 


82  Wo)fian's  Worth 

They  were  easier  to  get  along  ^vith,  and  would  not  mind  the 
child  so  much. 

I  mentally  thanked  the  Jewess  for  teaching  me  that  word, 
and  vocally  suggested  that  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  fur- 
nish either  of  those  qualifications.  She  smiled  grimly,  and 
admitted  the  imperativeness  of  the  situation.  Hassan,  with 
his  hand  over  his  mouth,  wished  me  to  ask  her  whether  she 
should  prefer  to  have  the  girl  taught  in  a  Female  Seminary, 
or  by  a  governess  engaged  at  the  house  ;  but  it  did  not  seem 
worth  while  to  go  into  particulars  while  the  generals  were  so 
far  beyond  our  reach,  and  he  was  afraid  to  speak  himself. 
So  w^e  came  away,  leaving  the  Christian  young  women  to 
their  fate,  though  Hassan,  when  he  had  recovered  his  spir- 
its, courage,  and  freedom  in  the  open  air,  remarked  that  he 
did  not  think  this  woman  was  very  young  or  very  Christian. 
I  know  that  she  was  exhaustive.  One  would  as  soon  have 
a  whirlwind  in  the  kitchen. 

"  Well  ?"  queried  Hassan,  when  we  had  walked  on  several 
minutes  in  silence. 

"  New  York  next,"  I  replied.  "  I  v;ill  find  those  thirty 
thousand  starving  women,  or  perish  in  the  attempt.'' 

"  Forty  thousand  is  the  New  York  figure,"  he  suggested, 
being,  like  the  minute-hand,  quick  at  figures. 

I  wrote  to  the  editor  of  the  best-tempered,  the  best-man- 
nered, and  the  most  trustworthy  daily  newspaper  in  the  city 
of  New  York : 

"  Dear  Sir, — A  few  weeks  ago  I  saw  in  your  paper  the 
annual  statement  that  there  were  forty  thousand  women  in 
New  York  making  shirts  at  six  cents  apiece,  and  otherwise 
starving  over  the  needle.  If  you  will  put  me  in  communi- 
cation with  those  women,  I  will  speedily  find  a  comfortable 
and  respectable  home  for  one  of  them,  so  that  you  will  have 
only  thirty-nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  to 
carry  over  to  next  year.     Very  respectfully,  etc.,  etc." 

His  reply  came  promptly.     Could  I  tell  in  what  issue  of 


and  Worthies  sues  s.  %2) 

their  paper  the  statement  referred  to  appeared  ?  If  so,  they 
would  endeavor  to  look  up  the  matter  and  give  me  the  ear- 
liest possible  information. 

I  could  not  give  the  exact  date,  but  it  was  only  a  few 
weeks  before. 

He  expressed  great  regret,  but  it  would  be  impossible  for 
them  to  do  any  thing  without  definite  information  on  that 
point. 

Five  peas  sat  in  a  pod,  says  Hans  Christian  Andersen. 
They  were  green,  and  -the  pod  was  green,  and  therefore 
they  thought  the  whole  world  was  green.  The  fable  is  of 
New  York  editors.  But  the  rural  mind  knows  that  forty 
thousand  women  in  articulo  mortis  do  not  suddenly  drop  out 
of  the  universe  like  a  penknife  lost  from  your  pocket. 

I  arose  and  went  to  New  York, 

I  descended  boldly  upon  the  awful  lair  of  a  New  York 
daily  newspaper  editor,  who  professes  himself,  and  is  gener- 
ally believed  to  be.  the  busiest  person  in  the  known  world, 
except  the  father  of  all  mischief 

I  do  not  expect  to  be  believed  if  I  say  that  he  was  sitting 
with  his  feet  upon  a  chair,  reading  a  newspaper,  doubtless 
admiring  one  of  his  own  editorials.  Therefore  I  do  not  say 
it ;  but  I  know  what  I  saw. 

He  took  down  his  feet  instantly,  and  stood  upon  them, 
evidently  feeling  that  his  hour  had  come.  New  York  edi- 
tors, I  fancy,  are  not  accustomed  to  being  called  upon  to 
confront  their  assertions  in  this  summary  fashion. 

I  accosted  him  without  apology  or  remorse. 

"You  said  in  your  excellent  paper" — so  much  granted  to 
the  spirit  of  courtesy — "a  few  weeks  ago  that  there  were 
forty  thousand  women  at  the  point  of  death  and  the  needle. 
Unless  they  are  by  this  time  all  dead  or  fed,  I  will  thank 
you  to  introduce  me  to  a  few  scores  of  them." 

He  ran  his  fingers  through  his  hair — beautiful  hair  it  was, 


84  Woma?rs  Worth 

too,  and  abundant,  in  spite  of  the  severe  toil  of  the  brain 
beneath — in  a  perplexed,  abstracted  way,  and  began,  hesita- 
tingly, "If  you  could  give  me  the  date  of  the  paper  thrt 
made  the  statement — " 

But  I  v/as  familiar  with  that  old  refrain,  and  replied,  un- 
flinchingly, 

"  I  can  not  give  it  to  you.  But  this  thing  is  not  done  in 
a  corner.  Forty  thousand  gaunt,  famine-stricken  women 
can  not  come  to  the  surface  momentarily,  like  earth-worms 
after  a  shower,  and  then  disappear  from  the  day.  If  they 
swarmed  the  streets,  or  the  cellars,  or  the  garrets  of  New 
York  three  weeks  ago.  they  swarm  them  now.  They  can 
not  march  into  your  newspaper  forty  thousand  strong,  and 
leave  no  trace.     Tell  me  where  to  find  them." 

Poor  fellow,  I  pitied  him,  as  a  tender-hearted  inquisitor 
may  be  supposed  to  have  pitied  St.  Lawrence  on  his  grid- 
iron. He  ran  both  hands  this  time  through  his  magnificent 
hair.  He  leaned  his  tortured  head  on  his  hands,  and  his  el- 
bows on  the  table.  He  folded  his  bonnie  brow  in  horizontal 
and  perpendicular  wrinkles  till  it  looked  like  a  distressed 
chess-board.  And  then  he  started  up  with  a  bright,  happy 
smile,  and  invited  me  home  to  dinner ! 

Rather  than  let  go  my  hold  upon  him,  I  went. 

We  sailed  and  sailed  up  the  beautiful  river  as  serenely  as 
if  there  were  no  women  in  the  world.  The  editor  expected 
his  wife  to  meet  us  at  the  landing  with  the  ponies,  but  she 
was  not  there.  "  Something  has  detained  her,"  he  said ;  and, 
after  waiting  a  while,  he  went  to  the  livery-stable  and  hired 
a  coach.  We  had  been  ten  minutes  on  our  land  journey 
when  the  editor's  little  son  cried,  "  There's  mamma !" 

She  was  just  late  enough  to  have  caused  the  trouble  and 
the  extra  carriage,  and  not  late  enough  to  imply  any  serious 
cause  of  detention.  Now,  I  thought,  he  will  be  vexed,  though 
he  is  too  polite  to  show  it. 


a?id  Worthiessness.  85 

"  Why,  so  it  is !"  he  exclaimed,  warmly.  "  Poor  little 
mamma !"  and  jumped  out  and  gave  her  his  own  seat,  and 
drove  the  ponies  home  himself  alone,  or  with  some  man, 
while  we  rode  royally  companioned. 

I  forgave  him  his  forty  thousand  women  on  the  spot. 

If  every  man  in  the  world  would  be  thoroughly  good  to 
the  one  woman  whom  God  has  given  him,  there  would  be 
no  forty  thousand,  or  forty  scores,  left  to  fight  the  bitter  bat 
tie  in  outer  darkness. 

Four-and-twenty  hours  lasted  that  dinner  and  its  concom- 
itants— four-and-twenty  hours  of  paradise  in  a  little  stone 
eyrie — if  that  is  not  «too  violent  a  word — perched  high  up 
among  the  rocky  Palisades.  The  lordly,  lovely  river  wound 
slowly  and  smoothly  by,  and  lost  itself  in  the  brilliant  hues 
of  autumn  woods  and  the  hazy  purple  of  distant  skies.  Slen- 
der skiffs  shot  athwart  from  bank  to  bank,  and  lazy  boats 
drifted  down  the  gentle  current  far  beneath  our  feet.  The 
stars  came  glowing  out  one  by  one,  and  the  city  lights 
twinkled  across  the  water,  hardly  less  brilliant  and  beautiful 
— stars  of  hidden,  happy  homes. 

What  have  want  and  famine  to  do  in  this  perfect  world  ? 

The  night-air  freshens  and  sharpens,  but  within,  upon  the 
ample,  hospitable  hearth,  leaps  and  sparkles,  flickers,  and 
fades,  and  leaps  again,  the  boundless  cheer  of  a  hard-wood 
fire.  Children  play  quietly  about  the  room — real  little  girls, 
healthy  and  wholesome,  in  honest  clothes,  shy  and  silent, 
watchful  and  bright,  whispering  softly  among  themselves, 
and  breaking  out  into  half-hushed  but  wholly  irrepressible 
laughs.  Cogently  entreated,  little  miss  finds  courage  to  ex- 
hibit her  gymnastics  on  the  hearth-rug  before  a  very  select 
and  appreciative  assembly,  who  enjoy  exceedingly  her  skill 
in  turning  a  somersault ;  whereupon  Miss  Roly  Poly,  fired 
with  a  noble  ambition  to  emulate  the  feats  of  her  older 
sister,  must  needs  throw  her  somersault  also,  and  proceeds 


86  IVoman's  Worth 

to  roll  her  chubby  person  into  a  delicious  little  puff-ball,  and 
squirms  around  sidewise  in  a  series  of  most  astonishing  and 
laughter-provoking  wriggles,  flattering  herself  all  the  while 
that  she  is  turning  heels  over  head,  which  is  the  only  turn 
she  does  not  make,  bless  her  sweet  innocence  !  The  next 
best  thing  to  her  gymnastics  is  her  devotion,  "  Bend  your 
head,  Roly  Poly,"  says  her  papa,  when  he  is  about  to  say 
grace  before  meat.  And  if  Roly  Poly  is  too  intent  on  her 
stranger  neighbor,  papa  merely  takes  her  by  the  nape  of  the 
neck  and  chucks  her  silky  head  into  her  plate  till  the  words 
of  thanksgiving  are  ended,  which  is  an  Aid  to  Devotion  at 
once  simple  and  effective ;  and  Roly  Poly  takes  it  all  in 
good  part,  sucking  her  thumb  with  silent  steadfastness 
through  the  whole,  nothing  doubting  herself  to  be  in  the  line 
of  the  true  apostolic  succession. 

After  the  glory  of  the  dark  comes  the  glory  of  the  dawn, 
and  then  long  rambles  in  the  gorgeous  woods,  and  long  lin- 
gering on  the  sunny,  warm  rocks  above  the  rolling  river,  and 
then  down,  down,  down  the  steep  cliff,  through  tangled  shrub- 
bery and  over  treacherous  rocks,  to  the  w^ater's  edgt.  And 
farewell,  charming  host  and  hostess,  rosy  cheeks,  dimpled 
fingers,  Roly  Poly — good-by !  And  may  no  hard  fate  ever 
bring  you  out  from  your  summer  nook  among  the  birds  and 
breezes  to  swell  the  dreadful  ranks  of  the  unfriended  and 
unsheltered  ! 

We  resumed  search  for  the  forty  thousand  women,  but  we 
never  found  them.  It  would  be  impolite  and  illogical  to  af- 
firm that  they  did  not  exist.  I  only  declare  that  they  were 
not  visible  to  the  naked  eye  of  the  rural  districts.  At  every 
turn  one  came  upon  ladies  whose  patience  and  temper  were 
worn  thin  and  threadbare  by  unfaithful  workwomen  ;  ladies 
whose  plans  were  laid,  whose  engagements  were  made  weeks 
beforehand,  and  who  found  both  deranged  and  destroyed 
because  their  seamstresses  failed  to  come.     Worse  than  this. 


mid  ]VortJikssnjss.  87 

these  seamstresses  not  only  failed  to  meet  their  appoint- 
ments, but  they  sent  no  excuse,  no  explanation,  not  even  a 
notice.  It  was  simply  that  nine  o'clock,  ten  o'clock,  twelve 
o'clock  failed  to  bring  them.  I  said,  "  Men  would  manage 
these  things  better.  Men  would  dismiss  a  clerk  who  was 
so  grossly  negligent  and  unfaithful.  You  are  really  aiding 
and  abetting  misconduct.  Why  do  you  not  teach  punctual- 
ity and  promptness  by  hiring  other  persons  to  do  your  work, 
instead  of  condoning  them  by  submissively  waiting  till  Ma- 
dame La  Sempstress  is  ready  to  come  to  you  ?" 

"  It  would  be  just  as  bad,"  they  said,  "  with  the  next  one. 
The  delay  would  simply  be  repeated.  Besides,  we  do  not 
know  where  to  go  for  other  assistance.  All  the  women 
who  are  worth  any  thing  are  engaged  weeks  ahead.  It  is 
less  vexatious,  on  the  whole,  to  concentrate  your  patience 
on  one  person  than  to  diffuse  it  over  a  dozen,  since,  unfor- 
tunately, each  fresh  draught  upon  vexation  creates  a  new 
supply." 

I  must  confess  that  I  mistrusted  these  reports.  Such  a 
state  of  things  seemed  to  me  incredible.  It  must  be  apathy, 
supineness,  indolence  on  the  part  of  these  city  ladies,  I 
thought.  It  is  that  laissez  faire  which  will  presently  corrode 
the  character,  subvert  our  institutions,  eat  the  heart  out  of 
our  republic,  and  make  mischief  generally.  Let  us  see  what 
an  influx  of  energy,  determination,  and  courage  from  the 
green  pastures  of  New  England  can  accomplish.  I  visited 
in  person  the  places  where  unemployed  women  might  be 
supposed  to  congregate — rooms  v^'hich  were  used,  not  as 
intelligence  offices,  but  as  a  sort  of  sewing  agenc}',  where 
women's  and  children's  garments  were  put  out  for  manufac- 
ture and  brought  in  for  sale  ;  rooms  which  were  under  the 
supervision  of  benevolent  and  intelligent  persons,  whose  ob- 
ject was  less  commercial  than  philanthropic.  But  it  was  to 
no  purpose.     Not  a  little  finger  was  to  be  had  for  love  or 


88  Woman  s  Worth 

money.  There  were  the  coats  and  garments  which  the  Dor- 
cases had  made  and  were  about  to  make,  but  no  Dorcas 
stood  ready  to  serve  a  waiting  world. 

"  Do  you  never  have  applications  from  women  who  want 
work  ?"  I  asked. 

"  Occasionally  we  do,  but  we  do  not  happen  to  have  any 
on  the  slate  now." 

Yet  one  would  suppose  that  a  whole  nest  of  slates  would 
not  be  able  to  contain  the  names  that  should  be  written. 

"  Do  the  working-women  kjiow  that  there  is  such  an  agen- 
cy as  this  in  existence  ?" 

The  young  v/oman  smiled  at  my  pertinacity  and  eager- 
ness, and  thought  it  was  pretty  generally  known,  as  the 
agency  was  no  very  new  establishment.  Continuing  to  look 
over  her  books,  she  found  that  one  good  seamstress,  who 
was  at  work  in  a  remote  part  of  the  city,  v/as  near  the  close 
of  her  engagement,  and,  unless  she  had  subsequently  formed 
a  new  one,  I  could  very  likely  secure  her,  if  I  would  take  the 
trouble  to  go  so  far. 

What  is  trouble  when  it  comes  in  the  shape  of  coach  or 
horse-car  to  him  who  would  save  an  unprotected  woman 
from  starvation  and  dishonor? 

"  Starvation  and  dishonor !"  echoed  my  indurated  New 
Yorker.  "You  will  find  that  she  will  be  engaged  three 
weeks  ahead,  and  then  we  shall  renew  our  probation  of 
waiting." 

But  the  energy  of  the  farming  sections  prevailed,  and  we 
found  the  young  woman,  who  thoughtfully  counted  her  fin- 
gers— "with  a  hundred  needles  exquisitely  pricked" — and 
then  replied  that  she  could  come  to  the  rescue  "  three  weeks 
from  next  Monday."  So,  it  will  be  seen,  the  farming  sec- 
tions quick  upflew,  and  kicked  the  beam. 

This,  as  our  friends  Swinburne  and  the  ancient  Greeks 
remark,  was  the   end  of  that  hunting.     Mark  the  perfect 


and  Worthkssness.  89 

man,  and  you  will  behold  that  he  never  pushes  his  forces 
beyond  the  verge  of  hope  for  the  sake  of  a  futile  consist- 
ency. The  starving  women  were  relinquished  to  foreor- 
dained obscurity,  and  the  exploring  expedition  devoted  the 
remainder  of  their  lives  to  moral  reflections,  of  which  the 
following  are  chief. 


9©  Woman's  Worth 


THINGS  NEEDED  AND  THINGS  WANTED. 

Things  are  worth  all  they  are  good  for.  The  primary 
use  of  the  heavy  silken  curtain  is,  by  richness  of  texture,  and 
beauty  of  color,  and  grace  of  fold,  to  give  to  the  room  an  air 
of  elegance,  comfort,  and  repose.  But  if  a  little  child  of  the 
house  has  set  its  clothes  on  fire,  the  costly  curtain  can  be 
put  to  no  higher,  no  more  economical  use  than  to  wrap  it 
around  the  little  form  and  stifle  the  threatening  flame.  As 
between  folding  the  curtain  away,  to  become  creased  and 
stained  in  some  antique  chest,  or  leaving  it  unmarred  in  all 
its  drawing-room  magnificence,  and  devoting  it  in  emergen- 
cy to  rough  but  vital  service,  there  can  be  no  question. 

The  parable  is  of  woman.  Her  first  cause,  so  to  speak, 
and  her  actual  uses,  would  hardly  suggest  each  other ;  and 
in  the  press  of  the  latter  the  former  has  been  largely  over- 
looked. Her  primary  value  is  not  only  foreign  to,  but  is 
absolutely  incompatible  with  physical  toil,  manual  labor, 
commercial  industry.  If  we  are  to  judge  of  design  by  re- 
sults, she  was  not  made  for  it.  Physically,  mentally,  and 
morally,  she  was  made  for  directly  the  opposite.  Nature 
and  revelation  agree  in  this.  You  may  not  believe  the  Bible, 
but  you  can  not  doubt  your  own  eyes.  You  may  never  have 
learned  to  use  your  eyes,  but  there  is  the  Bible.  It  was 
man  who  was  doomed  to  eat  his  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his 
face.  Woman's  bread  was  to  be  found  for  her.  A  thousand- 
fold more  awful  in  its  requirements,  perhaps  a  thousand-fold 
more  sweet  in  its  rewards,  was  the  work  of  woman.  To 
wrest  from  the  earth  shelter,  and  food,  and  warmth,  to  make 
straight  in  the  desert  a  highway  for  the  human  race,  is  the 


and  IVorthlessness.  91 

appointed  duty  of  man.  To  nurture  the  race  thus  physical- 
ly provided  for  into  grace,  and  purity,  and  strength,  is  the 
duty  of  woman.  Yet  duty  is  a  cold  word  to  use,  and  a  worth- 
less word  at  best.  For,  in  the  ideal  family — which  one  need 
not  have  the  gates  ajar  the  smallest  crack  to  knovv^  must  be 
the  type  of  heavenly  life,  if  there  be  any  heaven — in  the 
ideal  family  the  man's  most  abounding  joy,  the  mainspring 
and  hope  of  his  career,  is  planning  and  working  for  his  fam- 
ily ;  while  the  woman  moves  hither  and  thither,  transmuting 
all  coarse  metal  into  gold  by  the  unconscious  alchemy  of  her 
love,  without  thought  of  duty.  Indeed,  there  is  generally  no 
such  thing  as  duty  to  the  people  who  really  do  it.  They 
simply  take  life  as  it  comes,  meeting,  not  shirking  its  de- 
mands, whether  pleasant  or  unpleasant ;  and  diat  is  pretty 
much  all  there  is  of  it. 

Speaking  broadly,  the  difference  between  the  Conserva- 
tives and  the  Radicals  on  the  "  Woman  Question"  is  one  of 
degree,  not  of  kind  ;  of  shadow,  not  substance ;  of  subor- 
dinate, not  of  primary  interest.  The  Conservatives  think 
that  the  Radicals  are  trying  to  make  woman  over  into  a 
kind  of  man,  and  so  they  are.  But  the  Conservatives  think 
that  they  themselves  are  trying  to  keep  woman  woman, 
which  they  are  not.  They  are  simply  trying  to  keep  wom- 
an the  kind  of  man  she  already  is.  No  organization  has 
yet  been  effected,  no  convention  has  been  called  to  make 
her  woman,  or  to  remove  the  hinderances  which  prevent  her 
from  becoming  woman,  for  nature  is  so  strong  that  it  does 
not  need  cultivation  in  this  direction.  It  only  wants  the 
absence  of  restraint.  Take  away  from  woman  the  necessity 
of  being  any  kind  of  a  man — and  a  poor  kind  it  must  always 
be — and  she  never  will  grow  into  any  thing  but  a  woman. 
Here  and  there  men  have  tried  the  experiment ;  mostly,  it 
is  probable,  without  knowing  it.  No  ambition  to  solve  a 
social  or  psychical  problem  animated  them ;  but  their  own 


92  Woman's  Worth 

native  delicacy,  their  alert  mental  power,  the  strong  man  s 
spirit  born  in  them  and  kept  unspoiled,  set  them  uncon- 
sciously in  the  right  path.  Of  their  own  instinct,  following 
their  own  bent,  they  did  their  work,  and  left  the  woman,  per- 
haps made  the  woman  free  to  do  hers.  Without  recogniz- 
ing the  process,  the  world  sees  the  result  in  grand,  gracious 
women;  in  bright,  wild,  strong- natured  children;  in  free, 
eager,  vigorous  home-life.  But  these  men  do  not  organize. 
They  do  not  even  combine.  I  scarcely  know  if  they  have 
ever  spoken.  The  speaicers  on  the  "Woman's  Rights"  side 
demand  that  woman  shall  have  man's  advantage  to  do  man's 
work.  The  opposing  speakers  demand  that  she  shall  con- 
tinue to  do  man's  work  with  woman's  disadvantages.  But 
the  true  woman's  right  is  not  to  do  man's  work  at  all.  The 
Radicals  demand  that  women  shall  support  themselves  by 
having  an  opportunity  to  do  man's  work,  and  receive  there- 
for man's  wages.  Their  opponents  practically  maintain  that 
women  shall  support  themselves  by  doing  man's  work,  and 
receiving  therefor  whatever  man  shall  choose  to  allow  them  ; 
but  the  true  woman's  right  is  not  to  support  herself  at  all. 
I  mean  this  in  the  broadest,  most  palpable  sense.  Women 
ought  to  be  supported  by  men.  The  building  can  never 
stand  firm  until  we  begin  on  this  foundation.  I  do  not  mean 
simply  that  women  ought  never  to  be  forced  to  get  their  own 
hving,  as  the  phrase  goes,  but  that  the  living  which  is  got 
for  them  should  be  one  of  ease  and  comfort.  A  woman  is 
not  supported  by  her  husband,  or  her  father,  or  her  brother 
when  she  works  as  hard  in  the  house  as  he  does  out  of  it. 
To  receive  service  without  paying  wages  may  be  robbery ; 
it  is  certainly  not  conferring  support.  Stone  walls  do  not  a 
prison  make,  but  neither  do  they  make  a  paradise.  Solitary 
confinement  within  a  narrow  house  does  not  change  hard 
labor  into  useful  leisure. 

So  great  is  popular  ignorance  of  the  true  nature  and  final 


a7id  Wort^ilcssncss.  93 

cause  of  woman,  that  she  who  was  supported  as  she  ought 
to  be  would  be  considered  by  the  masses,  and  even  by  many 
who  tower  above  the  masses,  to  be  supported  in  idleness. 
By  far  the  larger  part  of  the  peculiar,  the  really  appropriate, 
the  only  economical  work  of  woman  lies  within  a  sphere 
well-nigh  invisible  to  the  common  vision.  No  woman  is  free 
to  live  the  life  which  she  ought  to  live,  to  accomplish  for  the 
world  the  work  which  she  was  fashioned  to  accomplish,  until 
to  the  carnal  eye  she  seems  to  have  pretty  nearly  nothing 
at  all  to  do.  So,  when  it  is  scornfully  said,  as  a  summing 
up  of  the  absurdity  of  the  thing,  "  You  would  then  turn  wom- 
en into  mere  dolls,  and  have  them  live  in  idleness !"  I  an- 
swer, Yes.  Perhaps,  on  the  whole,  that  is  as  near  as  we 
can  get  at  it  to  begin  with.  So  commercial,  so  mercenary^ 
so  altogether  material  is  the  value  set  upon  woman  in  the 
ordinary  estimation,  that  the  nearest  approach  we  can  make 
to  a  common  understanding  of  her  real  value  is  to  sweep 
away  the  old  standards  and  begin  new.  Dispense  with  ev- 
ery thing  that  is  usually  considered  woman's  work,  and  we 
shall  then,  at  least,  be  able  to  set  our  faces  toward  the  Zion 
that  will  come  with  the  discovery  of  her  real  work.  Given 
a  clean  balance-sheet,  and  we  will  see  what  accounts  can  be 
figured  up.  Given  a  woman-race  with  hands  unshackled, 
with  time  unmortgaged,  and  we  shall  be  on  the  high  road 
to  ascertain  what  bountiful  provision  Nature  has  made  for 
the  sustenance  and  cherishing  of  her  children. 

But  upon  this  subject  women  seem  to  be  very  nearly  as 
much  in  the  dark  as  men.  From  the  public  speeches  and 
public  writings  of  women,  you  would  gather  that  women  had 
only  to  choose  between  idleness  on  the  one  side,  or  man's 
work  on  the  other.  It  is  either  an  Oriental  life,  inane,  su- 
pine, selfish,  or  one  of  manifest,  tangible,  wage-winning  bus- 
iness. They  believe  in  the  dignity  of  labor — man's  labor, 
but  they  do  not  believe  in  the  existence  of  woman's  work. 


94  Women's  Worth 

They  admit  that  the  mother  has  special  exemptions,  but 
they  hold  motherhood  to  be  an  incident,  a  vocation,  and 
that,  outside  of  this  incident,  women  are  men.  Many  wom- 
en are  right  on  this  matter,  but  they  are  right  silently,  in- 
stinctively, subjectively,  through  experience  and  the  inner 
light.  What  women  preach  and  teach  in  public  is  the  view 
which  has  been  held  and  taught  by  men  time  out  of  mind. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  too  late  to  say  that  this  book  is  intended 
exclusively  for  women.  Men  may  consider  themselves  not 
only  discharged  from  any  fancied  obligation  to  read  it,  but 
respectfully  requested  not  to  read  it ;  for  to  them  it  will  be 
but  a  savor  of  death  unto  death.  The  truth  which  it  con- 
tains, and  which  it  is  hoped  may  be  wholesome  when  ap- 
plied in  the  proper  quarter,  wdll  only  minister  to  their  self- 
love,  and  tend  to  turn  away  their  eyes  from  beholding  their 
own  vanities,  and  fix  them  upon  the  vanities  of  women,  a  re- 
sult which  is  beneficial  to  neither. 

To  women  only  let  me  suggest  that,  in  planning  for  the 
world  as  it  ought  to  be,  we  should  never  forget  the  world  as 
it  is.  If  woman  has  never  yet  been  ranked  according  to 
the  real  standard  of  valuation,  we  may  yet  make  the  most 
of  her  according  to  the  lower  standards.  Always  remem- 
bering that  a  state  of  repose,  ease,  leisure  is  that  for  which 
woman  was  divinely  designed,  let  us  lay  aside  for  the  pres- 
ent all  thought  of  what  would  be  necessar)-^  or  unnecessary 
for  her  in  that  condition,  and  speak  only  of  women  as  they 
are  m  this  hard,  exacting  present  stage  of  the  world's  prog- 
ress. Granting  and  affirming  that  woman  ought  to  live  out- 
side of  the  laws  of  trade,  it  is  none  the  less  true  that,  if  she 
puts  herself,  or  is'  brought  by  society  within  the  scope  of 
those  laws,  she  must  conform  to  them.  Granting  and  as- 
serting that  woman  ought  not  to  do  man's  work,  it  is  none 
the  less  true  that,  if  she  does  it,  she  must  do  it  in  man's 
wav,  or  suffer  the  consequences.     The  products  of  her  toil, 


and  WortJilessncss.  95 

the  value  of  her  labor,  must  be  brought  into  direct  compari- 
son with  those  of  man,  and  be  judged  solely  by  their  worth, 
not  by  the  weakness  surmounted  in  the  doing. 

The  ignorance,  the  inexactness,  the  untrustworthiness,  the 
unbusiness-like  ways  of  women  are  appalling  when  you  look 
at  them  from  a  commercial  point  of  view.  Men  are  as  bad 
as  they  can  be,  one  is  sometimes  tempted  to  say,  but  ap- 
parently they  can  not  be  so  bad  as  women  in  these  respects. 
Long  ages  of  experience  have  at  least  educated  them  into 
a  consciousness  of  the  difference  between  yes  and  no,  but 
women  have  yet  to  learn  that  they  are  not  one  and  the  same 
word.  The  carpenter  promises  to  finish  your  new  porch  by 
a  certain  time.  He  runs  weeks  behindhand  ;  and  when,  at 
length,  the  porch  is  finished,  the  rain  weeps  in  at  every 
seam,  and  pours  in  at  every  joint.  But  he  has  the  grace 
to  be  ashamed.  He  knows  that  it  is  poor  work  and  tardy 
work,  and  he  takes  care  to  bring  in  his  bill  when  you  are 
not  at  home. 

But  women  look  you  blandly  in  the  face  and  are  not 
ashamed.  They  seem  to  lack  a  moral  sense,  or  a  mental 
perception,  or  whatever  the  faculty  is  which  makes  one  ca- 
pable of  contracting  an  engagement.  They  do  not  compre- 
hend its  nature.  It  has  for  them  no  more  binding  force 
*han  a  rope  of  sand.  They  break  it  with  a  serene  uncon- 
sciousness that  any  thing  is  broken,  or  that  there  was  any 
thing  to  break.  I  do  not  refer  now  to  the  female  portion 
of  our  foreign  population.  No  one  expects  to  find  there  a 
scrupulous  adherence  to  truth.  But  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
is, I  believe,  considered  to  be  beyond  all  other  races  truthful; 
and  when  a  well-dressed  and  respectable  American  wom- 
an who  knows  how  to  read  and  write,  and  belongs  to  the 
Church,  and  goes  to  the  sewing  society,  and  changes  her 
gown  in  the  afternoon — when  she  promises  to  go  east,  and 
calmly  turns  about  and  walks  west,  and  does  not  see  that 


96  Woman's  Worth 

there  is  any  discrepancy,  does  not  tear  her  hair  or  send  in 
her  confession  to  the  Church,  you  say  at  once  that  here  is 
missionary  ground.  Such  a  woman,  after  as  much  deliber^ 
ation  as  she  may  choose,  engages,  without  condition,  to  come 
into  your  service  on  a  certain  day,  to  remain  for  a  fortnight 
on  trial,  and  then  to  decide  whether  she  will  continue  or  re- 
linquish it.  This  is  not  an  ordeal  so  severe  that  human  na- 
ture can  not  be  expected  to  meet  it.  It  is  not  a  promise 
for  life,  but  for  a  fortnight.  Yet,  a  day  or  two  before  the  ap- 
pointed time,  she  sends  you  word  that  she  shall  not  come, 
because  her  son  wants  her  to  keep  house  for  him  !  She  does 
not  see  that  her  word  is  of  more  consequence  than  her  wish, 
let  alone  her  son's.  She  does  not  see  that,  even  if  she  re- 
pented of  her  bargain,  it  is  too  late  to  withdraw  from  it.  She 
does  not  see  that  her  engagement  to  a  stranger  is  a  reason 
why  she  can  not  make  an  engagement  with  her  son,  but  that 
her  wish  to  make  an  engagement  with  her  son  is  no  reason 
why  she  should  cancel  her  engagement  with  the  stranger. 
The  very  slightness  of  her  promise  increases  the  enormity 
of  breaking  it.  It  is  but  a  small  thing  for  the  son's  house- 
keeping to  be  a  fortnight  delayed,  and  her  engagement  only 
lasts  so  long.  Doubtless  a  request  on  her  part  for  a  release 
from  the  promise  Vv^ould  be  instantly  granted,  but  she  does 
not  value  her  word  highly  enough  to  make  that  little  exer- 
tion to  keep  it. 

A  young  woman,  bright,  sensible,  and  American,  makes  a 
similar  prgmise,  and  breaks  it  in  a  similar  manner,  except 
that  she  gives  no  reason  at  all.  She  simply  and  succinctly 
says,  "  I  have  concluded  not  to  work  for  you."  But  she 
had  formally  concluded  and  engaged  that  she  would  work 
for  you.  To  a  person  properly  constituted  or  properly 
taught,  an  engagement  could  not  have  two  conclusions. 

When  the  first  promise  was  made,  there  was  an  end  of  the 
matter.     It  was  no  longer  an  open  question.     It  had  passed 


and  Worthlcssness.  97 

beyond  her  control.  No  matter  how  much  she  might  regret 
the  decision,  a  woman  who  comprehends  the  nature  of  an 
engagement  would  not  recall  it.  It  takes  two  persons  to 
make  a  bargain,  says  the  adage,  and  it  takes  two  honorably 
to  break  it. 

Still  further,  to  show  how  completely  childish  they  are  in 
recognition  or  non-recognition  of  obligation,  these  very  per- 
sons will  come  to  you,  and,  repenting  themselves  of  their 
change  of  mmd,  ask  you  a  second  time  to  take  them  into 
your  service,  just  as  innocently  as  if  no  display  of  Punic 
faith  had  ever  been  made  ! 

Now  the  first  thing  which  I  would  do  toward  the  ameliora- 
tion of  the  condition  of  woman — the  redress  of  her  wrongs, 
and  the  enforcement  of  her  rights — the  very  first  measure  I 
would  adopt  to  enable  her  to  obtain  an  honorable  independ- 
ence, when  an  honorable  dependence  was  not  possible — 
would  be  to  imbue  her  with  a  sense  of  the  sacredness  of  an 
engagement.  First,  last,  and  always  is  the  obligation  to 
keep  one's  word.  He  who  shall  abide  in  the  tabernacle  of 
the  Lord  is  he  that  sweareth  even  to  his  own  hurt,  and 
changeth  not.  Do  what  you  say  you  will  do.  Come  when 
you  say  you  will  come.  Go  when  you  promise  to  go.  Be 
as  slow  as  you  choose  about  making  an  engagement ;  refuse 
altogether  to  bind  yourself,  if  you  will ;  but,  when  you  have 
bound  yourself,  let  nothing  whatever  induce  you  to  break  the 
bond.  If  you  have  engaged  to  teach  a  school  at  five  dollars 
a  week,  and  find  afterward  that  you  can  get  another  school 
at  ten  ;  if  you  have  engaged  to  do  housework  at  two  dollars 
a  week,  and  another  place  is  offered  you  at  three ;  if  you 
have  contracted  to  do  a  certain  quantity  of  machine-sewing 
at  two  cents  a  yard,  and  learn  presently  that  your  next 
neighbor  is  doing  the  same  sort  at  three — you  may  represent 
the  case  to  your  employers,  and  get  a  release  from  your  en- 
gagement if  you  can,  though  even  so  much  one  should  be 

E 


9$  Woman's  Worth 

slow  to  do.  But  without  such  a  release  you  should  no  more 
withdraw  from  your  bargain  than  you  should  drown  yourself. 
The  wisdom  of  the  bargain  is  not  a  thing  to  be  taken  into 
the  account.  The  fact  of  the  bargain  is  all  you  have  to  con- 
sider. Do  your  work  promptly  and  thoroughly — as  prompt- 
ly and  thoroughly  as  if  the  terms  were  brilliantly  satisfacto- 
ry— and  make  a  wiser  bargain  next  time ;  but  this  debt 
pay  to  the  uttermost  farthing,  as  scrupulously  as  if  you  were 
sent  into  the  world  for  nothing  else. 

When  women  have  once  become  thoroughly  possessed 
with  the  importance  of  keeping  their  word,  the  next  step  to- 
ward improving  their  condition  is  to  improve  the  quality  of 
their  work.  Of  all  the  evils  which  womankind  endure,  the 
part  which  law  can  cause  or  cure  is  infinitesimal  compared 
with  that  which  is  caused  by  their  own  inefficiency.  I  think 
it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  good  work  always  brings  good 
price.  There  is  always  room  high  up.  No  matter  whether 
it  be  serving,  or  cooking,  or  writing,  or  painting,  real  service 
is  always  in  demand.  But  women,  like  men,  must  do  the 
work  which  the  world  wants  done,  and  not  simply  the  work 
which  they  want  to  do.  It  is  not  more  certain  that  two  and 
two  make  four,  than  that  she  who  can  do  well  what  people 
wish  to  have  done  will  always  find  employment.  One  rea- 
son why  woman's  v/ork  is  so  little  sought  and  so  poorly  paid 
is  that  it  is  so  good  for  nothing.  I  am  at  this  moment  so 
far  from  joining  in  the  general  outcry  concerning  the  low 
wages  of  women,  that  it  seems  to  me  in  a  large  majority  of 
cases  women  are  overpaid.  They  receive  more  money  than 
they  fairly  earn.  The  raw,  rough,  unskilled,  untidy  Irish 
servant  in  a  New  England  kitchen  is  paid  three  dollars  a 
week  for  diffiising  discomfort  through  the  house.  A  boy 
leaves  a  high-school  well  educated,  well  mannered,  eager  to 
learn,  to  become  useful,  to  please  his  employers,  and  goes 
into  the  wholesale  store,  pays  his  own  board,  finds  his  own 


and  Worthlessness.  99 

clothes,  receives  little  or  nothing  in  wages,  but  is  too  thank- 
ful to  be  admitted  to  the  house  and  give  his  services  for  the 
sake  of  learning  the  art  or  the  trade.  Where  will  you  find  a 
woman,  ever  so  ignorant,  who  is  willing  to  give  a  single 
month's  time  to  learning  the  arts  of  cooking  or  the  ways  of 
her  employers  ?  Ten  to  one  she  does  not  care  to  learn 
either.  She  is  concerned  only  to  get  through  the  day  after 
any  fashion  whatever,  and  receive  her  wages.  Will  any  one 
venture  to  say  that  the  New  England  house-servant  is  un- 
derpaid ? 

This,  indeed,  seems  to  run  against  what  has  before  been 
said — that  good  work  is  necessary  to  good  pay.  .  But  it  only 
shows  that  in  our  country  the  demand  for  work  is  so  great 
that  even  poor  work  receives  good  pay,  and  it  makes  still 
more  unreasonable  the  clamor  against  the  low  wages  of 
women. 

A  capable  servant  is  perfect  master  of  the  situation.  A 
good  cook  may  be  sure  of  twenty  dollars  a  month  the  year 
round,  through  all  her  active  life,  and  a  comfortable  home 
for  her  old  age.  She  can  be  sure  of  consideration,  respect, 
and  kindness,  and  it  is  not  at  all  unsafe  for  her  to  be  often 
tyrannical  and  capricious.  There  is  no  more  free  and  inde- 
pendent citizen  than  a  trusty  servant.  It  would  sometimes 
not  be  far  wrong  to  say  there  is  no  more  absolute  master. 
It  is  often  amusing  to  see  the  proprietorship  which  a  loyal 
servant  assumes  of  a  loyal  household.  Such  a  relation  may 
become  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  relations  of  life.  And, 
in  face  of  all  this,  in  face  of  the  alleged  suffering  of  women 
for  want  of  work  to  do,  and  the  certain  suffering  of  women 
from  overmuch  work  to  be  done,  there  are  not  wanting  those 
who  will  rise  up  and  attempt  to  heal  the  hurt  of  the  daugh- 
ter of  my  people  by  reference  to  social  equality.  In  a  paper 
devoted  to  the  interests  of  women,  a  woman  tells  us  of  two 
ladies  who  '*  called  at  a  private  house  in  Brooklyn  in  search 


loo  Woman's  IVort/t 

of  board.  On  being  told  that  the  mother  and  daughter  did 
the  housework,  they  instantly  decided  not  to  remain,  for  it 
would  be  impossible  for  them  to  think  of  sitting  at  the  same 
table  with  persons  employed  in  such  labor. 

"  In  one  of  our  New  England  cities  lives  a  lady  whose 
name  I  should  like  to  give,  but  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to  do 
so.  She  said  she  wished  no  servants  in  her  house  who  were 
not  as  good,  or  who  knew  less  than  she.  You  may  be  sure 
she  has  no  difficulty  in  getting  good  help  when  she  wants 
it.  When  her  maid-servants  have  finished  their  work  for 
the  day,  they  put  on  their  pretty  clothes,  and  go  into  the  par- 
lor to  entertain  and  be  entertained.  They  sit  at  the  same 
table  with  their  mistress,  and  are  treated  in  every  respect  as 
her  equal.  She  has  in  her  employ  two  women  who  have 
served  her  for  thirty-five  years.  Her  husband  died  not  long 
since.  He  willed  each  of  these  servants  five  thousand  dol- 
lars, and,  in  case  they  outlive  his  wife,  the  use  of  a  house 
during  life.  Who  will  arise  and  make  the  appropriate  com- 
ments on  these  two  cases  ?" 

I  do  not  know  whether  my  comments  will  be  the  "  appro- 
priate" ones  expected ;  but,  to  my  thinking,  these  incidents 
put  women  in  the  precise  attitude  of  the  person  who  should 
refuse  to  be  saved  from  drowning  by  a  man  who  had  not 
been  introduced.  We  are  questioning  hov/  to  rescue  women 
from  spoliation  and  starvation,  and  find  that  the  trouble, 
after  all,  is  not  that  woman  is  starving,  but  that  she  can  not 
dine  with  her  mistress  !  This  may  be  a  grievance,  but  it  has 
no  place  in  the  discussion  of  woman's  rights,  and  to  bring 
it  in  seems  childish  and  trivial.  Do  men  dine  with  their 
employers,  or  refuse  to  work  if  they  must  eat  by  themselves  ? 
Here  is  a  relay  of  carpenters — skilled  workmen,  owners  of 
property,  singers  and  players  upon  instruments,  intelligent, 
reading,  thinking  men,  and  they  eat  their  dinner  in  the 
barn  or  the  cellar,  and  make  merry.     They  would  make  still 


a7id  lVortJilcss7iess.  loi 

merrier  if  you  should  suggest  to  them  that  the  fact  had  any 
significance  in  point  of  pohtical  economy.  It  is  worse  than 
foolish,  it  is  mischievous,  to  bring  up  such  facts  as  argu- 
ments on  the  woman  question.  They  mislead.  They  divert 
attention  from  the  real  question.  The  demand  is  justice, 
and  we  discuss  taste.  Even  as  a  matter  of  taste,  there  are 
two  sides.  For  me,  I  have  not  the  smallest  admiration  for 
the  woman  who  makes  a  point  of  having  her  "  help"  eat  and 
sit  with  her.  She  may  be  every  thing  that  is  charming,  but 
this  circumstance  by  no  means  proves  it.  It  does  not  show 
or  indicate  that  she  is  any  more  just,  or  generous,  or  sensi- 
ble than  the  woman  who  prefers  to  eat  alone.  It  is  far 
stronger  presumptive  evidence  of  lack  of  discrimination  and 
delicacy  than  of  any  thing  else.  A  woman  may  be  an  ex- 
cellent servant,  and  not  an  agreeable  companion.  Most 
women,  too,  have  companionship  enough  without  hiring  it. 
Servants  may  be  superior  to  their  mistresses,  but  sitting  in 
the  parlor  does  not  prove  it.  The  persons  who  hire  work- 
men or  workwomen,  not  for  their  fitness  to  do  the  work  re- 
quired, but  their  general  availability  as  companions,  may 
please  themselves  and  benefit  individuals,  but  they  contrib- 
ute little  to  the  solution  of  the  labor  problem.  Women  are 
not  to  be  blamed  for  being  natural  aristocrats,  but  it  is  un- 
fortunate that  they  should  be  led  to  nurse  this  aristocratic 
tendency  at  the  expense  of  their  comfort  and  prosperity. 
If  a  girl  has  a  choice  of  places,  she  is  right  and  wise  in 
choosing  the  one  most  to  her  taste ;  and  that  she  should 
choose  the  one  where  her  position  will  be  highest  is  credita- 
ble to  her ;  but  to  cry  out  that  she  is  starving  because  she 
can  not  find  one  to  her  taste  is  not  right,  nor  wise,  nor  cred- 
itable. So,  if  a  mistress  can  get  plenty  of  her  equals  to 
serve  her,  she  would  be  foolish  to  go  unserved,  and  to  make 
an  ado  about  her  sufferings,  because  she  insists  on  having 
inferioLs,  and  can  not  find  them ;  but  when  inferiors  are 


I02  Wo?na?i^s  Worth 

many,  and  their  wail  for  work  is  loud  and  bitter,  she  is  en- 
tirely wise  in  consulting  her  own  inclination  as  to  whether 
they  shall  assist  at  her  meals  in  the  English  or  the  French 
sense  of  the  word. 

The  mischief  of  it  is  that,  when  such  things  are  brought 
forward  as  grievances,  a  wicked  and  perverse  generation  will 
immediately  conclude  that  all  grievances  are  of  the  same 
nature,  and  the  plaintiff  is  summarily  dismissed  with  costs. 
No  one  blames  or  ought  to  blame  a  woman  for  wishing  to 
stand  w^ell  in  the  world  ;  but  disappointed  ambition  and  baf- 
fled endeavor  are  as  common  to  men  as  to  women,  and  real 
or  fancied  inequality  of  rank  is  a  poor  ground  for  social  rev- 
olution. 

There  is  the  great  army  of  sewing-women,  who,  beyond 
question,  are  wretchedly  paid.  Equally  beyond  question  is 
the  wretchedness  of  their  sewing.  A  good  seamstress  is  as 
scarce  as  a  good  cook,  and  as  sure  of  good  wages.  How 
many  of  these  women,  who  make  shirts  at  six  cents  apiece, 
know  how  to  fashion  under-garments  tastefully,  to  cut  them 
economically,  to  sew  them  neatly  and  strongly  ?  What  they 
do  is  the  coarsest  and  most  mechanical  kind  of  sewing. 
When  it  comes  to  what  is  called  family  sewing,  they  are  ut- 
terly deficient.  There  are  plenty  of  mothers  who  would  be 
eager  to  engage  their  services  if  their  services  were  worth 
engaging.  Women  at  the  heads  of  households  are  put  to 
great  inconvenience  and  annoyance  for  want  of  competent 
help  at  the  needle  ;  and  the  help  which  they  get  is  often  so 
clumsy,  shabby,  and  ineffective,  that  it  is  a  question  whether 
it  ought  not  to  be  called  a  hinderance.  Let  all  women  who 
design,  or  who  are  forced  to  earn  their  living  by  their  nee- 
dle, become  skilled  needle-women.  Let  them  learn  how  to 
cut,  and  fit,  and  make  all  manner  of  clothing,  outer  and  in- 
ner, coarse  and  fine,  and  then  let  us  see  whether  they  will 
be  obliged  to  work  at  six  cents  a  shirt. 


and  Worthlessness.  103 

But  it  is  said  they  have  no  opportunity  to  learn  this.  They 
are  poor,  and  have  neither  time  nor  teachers  for  any  thing 
but  the  plainest  work.  This  may  be  true,  but  it  has  noth- 
ing whatever  to  do  with  the  question.  The  world  does  not 
ask  how  its  servants  came  to  be  ignorant,  but  are  they  wise  t 
It  wants  ability,  not  reasons  for  inability.  It  may  not  be  a 
woman's  fault  that  her  work  is  poor,  but  she  must  not  ex- 
pect to  get  the  same  price  for  it  as  if  it  were  good.  This  law 
is  inexorable.  Man  did  not  make  it,  and  man  can  not  un- 
make it. 

Here  also  comes  in  the  necessity  of  doing  the  work  which 
society  wants  done.  There  is  just  so  much  serving  to  be 
done  ;  so  much  family  sewing,  that  needs  trained  hands ;  so 
much  slop-work  sewing,  that  untrained  hands  can  make  shift 
to  do.  The  trained  hands  are  few,  and  they  command  the 
market.  They  are  called  fashionable  milliners  or  dress- 
makers. They  open  shops  ;  they  set  up  clothing  establish- 
ments ;  they  ask  great,  perhaps  exorbitant  prices,  and  they 
make  fortunes.  The  untrained  hands  are  many,  and  are  at 
the  mercy  of  the  market.  They  must  take  what  they  can 
get.  Because  they  are  many,  there  is  competition  ;  and 
starvation  wages  follow.  There  being  only  so  much  coarse 
work  to  be  done,  the  greater  the  number  of  workers,  the 
greater  the  subdivision  of  wages.  There  being  so  much 
fine  work  to  do,  the  fewer  the  workmen,  the  larger  the  por- 
tion of  wages  to  each  one.  If  the  woman  is  dissatisfied  with 
making  shirts  at  six  cents  apiece,  let  her  make  dresses  at 
fifteen  dollars.  But  she  does  not  know  how.  What,  then, 
is  she  complaining  oil  Must  the  employer  who  wants  shirts, 
and  does  not  want  dresses,  pay  for  one  and  receive  the  oth- 
er ?  No,  it  is  said  ;  but  the  employer  who  wants  shirts  made 
should  pay  a  living  price.  Not  in  the  least.  Whether  the 
price  be  living  or  dead  is  no  affair  of  his.  It  is  his  solely 
to  pay  the  sum  necessary  to  get  his  work  done.     It  is  not  a 


104  IVojJian's  JVo/ih 

question  of  morality  ;  it  is  a  question  of  market  price.  You 
have  no  more  right  to  demand  of  a  man  that  he  shall  pay 
twelve  cents  for  work  which  he  can  buy  at  six,  than  he  has 
to  demand  of  you  that  you  shall  pay  twelve  dollars  a  barrel 
for  flour  when  you  can  get  it  for  five.  Morality,  and  philan- 
thropy, and  sentimentality  are  entirely  out  of  place  here. 
They  may  come  in  to  relieve  individual  suffering,  but  they 
contribute  nothing  to  the  solution  of  the  problem.  We  pay 
for  things  what  they  are  worth.  Extra  price  for  extra  qual- 
ity. Extra  price  for  common  quality  may  be  charity  or 
short-sightedness,  but  it  is  not  trade.  Trade  is  a  law  unto 
itself.  It  needs  no  outside  interference.  The  fashionable 
dress-maker  or  the  noted  lawyer  demands  exorbitant  prices. 
The  remedy  is  at  hand — you  need  not  employ  them.  If 
they  are  really  exorbitant,  the  withdrawal  of  patronage  will 
speedily  bring  them  to  terms.  If  they  are  so  skillful  that 
you  must  employ  them,  then  their  terms  are  not  exorbitant. 
For  their  signal  skill  they  have  a  right  to  demand  signal 
wages ;  and  you  have  no  more  right  to  say  that  they  shall 
bring  their  style  and  their  sagacity  to  a  cheaper  market,  than 
you  have  to  demand  that  the  owner  of  a  coal-mine  shall  dis- 
tribute his  coal  around  among  the  poor,  or  sell  it  to  work- 
ing-men at  half  price. 

The  suit  lately  brought  by  a  dress-maker  to  recover  the 
amount  of  her  bill  from  a  customer  exactly  illustrates  my 
meaning.  Judging  from  the  evidence,  I  have  no  doubt  the 
charges  were  extortionate  up  to  the  verge  of  fraud ;  but  so 
powerful  is  a  reputation  for  skill,  that,  on  the  strength  of  it, 
a  woman  may  dare  to  risk  her  reputation  for  honesty.  I 
am  sorry  that  a  woman  should  thus  abuse  her  gift,  but  I  am 
heartily  glad  when  she  is  so  skillful  in  any  honorable  calling 
that  she  controls  the  market,  and  dares  charge  high  prices. 
She  has  precisely  the  same  right  to  do  it  that  the  great  law- 
yer has  to  charge  high  fees.     He  does  not  necessarily  be- 


and  Worthlessness.  105 

stow  more  thought  on  his  cases  than  his  lowlier  brother, 
but  he  is  paid  for  his  ability  to  do  more  work  with  less 
thought.  The  city  dress-maker  puts  no  more  stitches  into 
her  gown  than  the  country  dress-maker,  but  she  charges  for 
the  ye-ne-sais  quoi — which  is  born,  not  made.  Of  course, 
she  may  make  fraudulent  charges  \  she  may  want  an  extra 
fifty  dollars  on  Saturday  night,  glance  over  her  account- 
book,  and  assess  that  sum  upon  two  or  three  of  her  rich  and 
careless  customers.  Or  she  may  make  false  entries  and 
render  false  accounts,  believing  that  her  customers  would 
sooner  pay  privately  than  contest  publicly.  That  is  simple 
dishonesty.  So  the  hotel-keeper  charges  carriage-hire  to 
guests  who  have  ordered  no  carriage.  If  they  protest,  he 
says  it  was  a  mistake,  and  remits  the  fine.  If  they  do  not 
notice  it,  he  gains  his  five  or  ten  dollars.  It  is  only  a  mode 
of  theft.  But  it  is  not  theft  for  a  woman  to  put  upon  het 
work  as  high  a  valuation  as  it  will  bear.  It  is  public  as  well 
as  personal  service.  Every  woman  who  demands  a  high 
price  on  what  she  has  to  sell,  and  gets  it,  benefits  every 
other  woman  who  has  any  thing  to  sell.  Nor  does  she  in- 
jure any  one ;  for  the  woman  who  can  not  afford  to  buy 
her  dresses  and  bonnets  can  make  her  own.  Style  is  a 
luxury,  not  a  necessity.  A  woman  is  under  no  obligation 
to  wear  a  Worth  gown,  nor  is  there  real  bitterness  to  the 
pain  of  going  through  life  without  it. 

There  has  been  much  talk  lately  about  raising  the  wages 
of  the  women  who  are  employed  in  the  United  States  Treas- 
ury, and  those  senators  and  representatives  who  favored 
the  measure  are  spoken  of  as  friendly  to  the  woman  causa, 
and  those  who  opposed  it  as  being  ungallant.  Such  talk  is 
well  enough  for  badinage,  but  it  can  never  rise  to  the  level 
of  argument.  Nothing  seems  clearer  or  fairer  than  that  for 
the  same  work  women  ought  to  be  paid  the  same  wages  as 
men.     But  it  is  a  commercial  ought,  not  a  moral  ought. 

E  2 


io6  Woman^s  Wo?ih 

If  trade  says  No,  it  is  not  the  province  of  morals  to  say  Yes. 
It  is  not  the  province  of  morals  to  have  any  say  about  it. 
Morality  has  not  to  make  the  rules  of  trade,  but  it  may  help 
to  keep  them.  It  has  not  to  regulate  the  price  of  labor  or 
of  merchandise,  though  it  may  enforce  the  fair  and  prompt 
payment  of  that  price.  It  does  not  prescribe  the  terms  of 
the  contract,  though  it  demands  that  there  shall  be  no  con- 
cealment of  conditions,  no  evasion  of  meaning,  no  violation 
of  pledges.  Women  ought  to  receive  the  samo  wages  for 
the  same  work  as  men,  if  they  can  get  it.  But  the  ought  is 
to  be  enforced  by  the  power  of  women,  not  extracted  from 
the  compassion  of  men.  Until  then,  nothing  is  gaiced.  A 
single  employer  here  or  there  may  be  moved  by  conscien- 
tious scruples  to  pay  men  and  women  the  same  wages  ;  but, 
so  long  as  it  turns  on  a  man's  conscience,  it  is  local,  tempo- 
rary, not  to  be  depended  on.  It  is  no  more  a  victory  for 
the  "  woman's  cause"  than  when  a  man  gives  a  poor  woman 
a  dollar  in  the  street.  Women-workers  have  gained  no  van- 
tage-ground until  they  are  in  a  condition  to  dictate  terms  in- 
stead of  receiving  bounty. 

The  United  States  government  is  like  any  private  employ^ 
er,  except  that  it  has  only  a  derivative  power,  and  is  there- 
fore more  limited  in  action.  If  a  private  employer  chooses, 
from  conscientious  motives,  to  pay  nine  hundred  dollars  for 
Work  that  can  be  equally  well  done  for  six,  he  has  a  right 
to  gratify  himself.  He  pays  the  cost  out  of  his  own  pocket, 
and  it  is  nobody's  affair  but  his  own.  I  question  if  the  gov- 
ernment has  a  right  to  pay  more  than  the  market-price  for 
labor.  It  is  not  spending  its  own  money,  but  that  of  the 
people.  It  is  not  set  up  in  business  for  itself,  but  is  the 
agent  of  the  people.  It  may  not  transcend  its  proper  bounds 
in  trying  social  experiments  to  some  extent ;  but  there  are 
certain  principles  which  seem  to  be  settled,  and  which  have 
therefore  passed  beyond  the  province  of  experiment,  and 


and  Worthlessness.  107 

one  of  these  is  the  eternity  and  self-sufficiency  o.  the  law  of 
demand  and  supply.  The  question  of  work  and  wages  is 
not  to  be  tampered  with.  It  needs  only  to  be  left  alone  to 
adjust  itself.  The  government  is  concerned  only  to  get  its 
work  well  done.  It  should  employ  the  best  of  servants,  and 
pay  the  price  which  it  is  obliged  to  pay.  It  has  no  right  to 
put  its  wages  so  low  that  it  can  secure  only  incompetent 
servants,  and  it  has  no  right  to  put  its  wages  any  higher 
than  is  necessary  to  secure  the  best  service.  If  it  pays  the 
Treasury  women  so  little  that  only  inferior  women  offer 
themselves,  and,  in  consequence,  only  inferior  work  is  done, 
it  is  an  unfaithful  steward,  a  squanderer  of  the  people's 
money.  If  at  the  price  it  now  pays  it  secures  perfect  and 
permanent  service,  has  it  a  right  to  pay  more,  out  of  defer- 
ence to  an  abstract  idea,  whether  that  idea  be  justice  or 
mercy  ?  It  is  no  reason  against  a  rise  in  salary  that  wom- 
en can  be  found  v/ho  will  work  at  the  low  wages.  Prob- 
ably no  salary  in  the  country  can  be  reduced  so  low  that 
some  man  or  woman  will  not  be  ready  to  take  the  office, 
but  the  salary  may  be  made  so  small  that  only  a  very 
poor  sort  of  person  will  think  it  worth  while.  Such  reduc- 
tion would  be  the  worst  kind  of  extravagance.  Neither  is  it 
necessarily  a  reason  for  the  rise  of  salary  that  the  women 
will  otherwise  resign,  since  there  may  be  twice  as  many 
women  in  waiting  who  would  perform  the  work  equally  well ; 
and,  unless  the  change  would  amount  to  more  than  the  de- 
sired increase  of  salary,  government  would  have  no  right  to 
grant  the  increase. 

An  argument  brought  forward  against  the  proposed  in- 
crease of  salary  is  that  the  women  themselves  did  not  de- 
sire it,  and  had  sent  in  requests  to  members  of  Congress 
not  to  grant  it ;  but  this  also  is  vanity.  The  most  thought- 
less person  must  surmise  that  people  never  really  want  less 
money  than  they  can  honestly  get ;  and  when  a  workman 


io8  Woman's  Worth 

petitions  for  smaller  wages,  it  is  an  indirect  way  of  gaining 
some  other  object.  So  in  this  case  it  appears,  upon  close 
questioning,  that  the  outside  pressure  upon  the  Treasury  is 
already  so  great  that  the  occupants  have  all  they  can  do  to 
hold  their  own,  and,  if  the  salary  be  increased,  they  fear 
they  will  succumb  and  be  swept  away  altogether.  But  this 
is  turning  the  world  upside  down  indeed.  One  would  not 
blame  the  women.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  a  weak 
swimmer,  struggling  against  the  tide,  should  be  philosoph- 
ical, but  it  would  be  blameworthy  indeed  if  cool,  grave,  dis- 
passionate legislators  should  frame  a  law  on  such  pretexts. 

Whichever  way  the  question  is  decided  by  government  is 
of  no  general  importance  so  long  as  it  is  decided  by  gov- 
ernment. When  women  can  demand  of  their  employers  a 
fixed  price,  and  can  afford  to  leave  them  unless  that  price 
is  paid,  the  victory  is  gained,  the  staff  is  in  their  own  hands. 
Then  their  price  will  be  paid,  and  they  will  have  no  more 
complaints  to  make  of  injustice.  But  any  liberality  or  any 
increase  of  wages  that  comes  only  from  an  employer's  sense 
of  justice  or  benevolent  disposition  is  of  no  more  account  in 
the  solution  of  the  problem  than  so  much  money  bestowed 
in  charity.  It  is  another  form  of  dependence.  It  is  not  a 
step  toward  independence. 

One  would  suppose,  from  what  he  hears,  that  the  great 
and  crying  want  of  women  is  work ;  or,  as  it  is  sometimes 
put,  a  fair  day's  wages  for  a  fair  day's  work  ;  or,  again,  free- 
dom to  do  whatever  she  is  capable  of  doing.  This  is  not 
so.  What  women  want  is  not  work,  but  the  wages  of  work  ; 
not  freedom  to  work,  but  freedom  to  receive  money  without 
working.  There  is  plenty  to  do  now,  but  they  will  not  do 
it.  They  wish  to  live  like  women,  and  be  paid  like  men. 
I  do  not  blame  them  for  this.  It  is  as  natural  as  it  is  to  be 
born.  They  can  no  more  help  it  than  they  can  help  being 
women.     They  would  not  be  women  if  it  were  otherwise. 


and  U'orthkssness.  109 

They  were  made  to  spend  money,  not  to  earn  it.  They  take 
kindly,  because  instinctively,  to  spending  money,  and  hard- 
ly, because  enforcedly,  to  earning  it.  But  all  the  same  it 
remains  that  when  they  become  men  they  must  put  away 
womanish  things,  and  when  they  undertake  to  earn  money 
they  become  men. 

If  women  want  work,  what  doth  hinder  them  from  getting 
it  ?  They  flock  to  the  school-houses  for  situations  as  teach- 
ers till  there  are  twenty  applications  for  every  vacancy,  and 
in  some  instances  I  know  there  are  twice  and  thrice  that 
number.  They  press  against  the  doors  of  the  government 
offices,  and  for  one  who  is  received  scores  are  sent  disap- 
pointed away.  They  will  be  clerks,  copyists,  amanuenses, 
any  thing  which  promises  light  employment,  permits  taste- 
ful dress,  and  bestows  even  a  moderate  remuneration ;  and 
for  this  they  will  wait,  and  pray,  and  suffer.  But  to  the 
fields  that  are  really  ripe  for  harvest  the  laborers  are  dis- 
tressingly few.  It  has  been  dinned  and  dinned  into  the 
ears  of  women  that  the  place  where  they  are  wanted  is  the 
kitchen,  but  into  the  kitchen  they  will  not  go.  They  are 
sorely  needed  in  the  sewing-room,  but  the  sewing-room  is 
to  them  an  abomination.  They  have  no  taste  for  these 
things,  it  is  said.  But  have  they  any  inborn  taste  for  cop- 
ying deeds  ?  Is  there  any  thing  especially  agreeable  in 
counting  greenbacks  till  your  fingers  bleed  ?  It  seems  de- 
grading to  a  girl  of  good  education  to  assume  the  business 
of  cooking  or  clear-starching,  but  there  is  a  call  for  ten 
times  as  much  mind,  skill,  judgment,  wisdom  in  managing 
a  cooking,  or  an  ironing,  or  a  sewing  department,  as  is  re- 
quired to  count  money  or  copy  letters. 

Sick-nursing  is  an  occupation  the  most  honorable,  import- 
ant, and  remunerative.  The  demand  for  nurses  is  constant 
and  urgent.  They  receive  whatever  they  choose  to  ask. 
No  skill,  no  training,  no  education,  no  refinement  is  thrown 


no  Woina7i's  Worth 

away  here.  And  it  is  a  calling  peculiarly  womanly ;  so 
much  so,  indeed,  that  only  the  money  earned  puts  it  in  the 
sphere  of  man.  One  would  suppose  that  women  would  rush 
to  it.  On  the  contrary,  they  assiduously  keep  out  of  it.  The 
scarcity  is  so  great  that  the  need  is  always  pressing,  often 
distressing,  and  not  infrequently  fatal.  Life  is  lost,  health 
and  happiness  are  destroyed,  and  mourners  go  about  the 
streets  from  sheer  and  simple  lack  of  careful  and  intelligent 
nursing.  Delicate,  sensitive  women,  in  critical  and  danger- 
ous illness,  with  every  sense  preternaturally  acute,  and  pow- 
er of  resistance  weakened  by  suffering,  are  consigned  to  ig- 
norant, superstitious,  garrulous,  obtuse,  untidy,  snuff-taking 
old  women,  whose  very  presence  would  be  enough  to  make 
a  well  person  sick.  If  sudden  and  severe  disease  makes  too 
heavy  draughts  upon  the  healthy, 

"  East  and  west,  and  south  and  north, 
The  messenger  rides  fast," 

and  often  and  long  they  ride  in  vain.  The  patient  not 
only  suffers  from  being  tended  by  worn-out  friends,  but  he 
suffers  unspeakably  from  anxiety  on  their  account.  Instead 
of  being  quiet,  and  giving  his  sole  strength  to  recovery,  he 
is  constantly  kept  back  and  kept  down  by  feeling  himself  a 
burden  upon  those  he  loves.  And  the  greater  their  mutual 
love,  the  greater  their  uneasiness.  It  is  amazing  to  hear 
this  outcry  for  a  wider  sphere  and  greater  opportunities  for 
woman,  while  her  sphere  is  already  a  thousand  times  wider 
than  she  spans,  and  her  opportunities  a  thousand-fold  great- 
er than  she  has  ever  attempted  to  measure.  Every  sphere 
under  the  sun  is  open  to  her  but  the  do-nothing  sphere. 
Ever}^  imaginable  opportunity  is  offered  her  except  the  op- 
portunity to  sow  tares  and  reap  wheat.  The  cry  for  work, 
the  clamor  for  a  career,  are  the  cr}'  and  clamor  of  weakness. 
Strong  eyes  see  work,  and  strong  hands  do  it,  and  say  noth- 
ing about  it.     She  who  is  equal  to  a  career  enters  upon  a 


and  Worthlessness.  iii 

career,  and  there  is  no  flourish  of  trumpets.  Be  sure  she 
who  complains  of  obstacles  is  not  the  victim  of  obstacles. 

I  do  not  blame  women  for  wishing  to  live  easy  and  dress 
well,  but  I  do  blame  them  for  thinking  it  more  dignified  to 
whine  and  complain  than  to  live  laboriously  and  dress 
coarsely.  I  rejoice  in  every  woman  who  conquers  fate  and 
compels  deference,  but  I  do  not  rejoice  in  those  who  are 
neither  strong  enough  for  a  calm  victory  or  a  dignified  sub- 
mission. It  is  well  if  a  woman  has  the  power  of  self-direc- 
tion— feels  no  fear  and  asks  no  favor  ;  but  there  are  thou- 
sands of  women  who  have  no  especial  bent  to  any  thing,  but 
who  have  general  adaptations  that  might  make  them  useful, 
prosperous,  and  honored  if  they  would  only  give  their  ener- 
gies to  work,  instead  of  to  getting  money  without  work. 

On  the  supposition  that  women  want  work,  various 
schemes  are  devised  to  furnish  it.  I  have  heard  talk  of  a 
plan  which  is  to  supply  women  with  small  farms  in  the  vi- 
cinity of  a  large  city,  which  farms  they  are  to  occupy  rent 
free  for  a  certain  time,  at  the  expense  of  the  state,  and 
whereon  they  are  to  support  themselves  by  raising  small 
fruits  for  the  market.  It  is  found  that  the  poor  women  will 
not  go  into  the  country,  but  persistently  cling  to  the  city, 
and  this  device  is  brought  forward  as  a  sort  of  compromise. 

One  would  be  slow  to  oppose  any  thing  which  looked  to 
the  amelioration  of  poverty,  lest  haply  he  be  found  to  fight 
against  God  ;  but  it  must  be  confessed  that  women  in  the 
country,  who  are  wearing  out  their  lives  with  overwork,  and 
their  nerves  with  the  awkwardness  and  ignorance  of  house- 
maids, look  with  coldness  upon  such  a  scheme.  "  What 
right,"  they  say  to  the  authorities,  "  have  you  to  tax  us  to 
assist  women  whom  we  would  pay  handsomely  to  assist  us  ? 
These  women  object  to  going  into  the  country.  There 
are  few  of  us  who  would  object  to  a  residence  in  the  city  or 
suburbs,  but  we  are  obliged  to  live  in  the  country,  and  we 


112  JFoman's  JVorf/i 

can  not  see  why  we  should  be  called  upon  to  release  others 
from  the  same  necessity." 

These  suffering  countrywomen  may  be  right  or  wrong, 
but  there  are  reasons  which  seem  to  make  such  well-meant 
plans  chimerical.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  wrong  to  suppose 
that  farming,  or  even  householding,  does  not  need  brain.  A 
woman  can  not  raise  strawberries  by  instinct  any  more  than 
she  can  make  dresses.  Of  the  two,  I  fancy  it  would  be  far 
easier  to  learn  how  to  sew  than  how  to  carry  on  a  farm  with 
judgment.  To  take  a  woman  from  helpless  poverty — and 
that  is  the  only  kind  of  poverty  we  are  speaking  of,  for  pov- 
erty that  can  help  itself  is  not  poverty — to  put  such  a  wom- 
an at  the  head  of  a  house  and  a  farm,  without  knowledge 
and  without  experience,  seems  not  only  injudicious,  but  un- 
warrantable. She  who  is  not  faithful  over  a  few  things 
should  not  be  made  ruler  over  many  things,  especially  at 
other  people's  expense.  She  who  has  not  sense  enough,  or 
spirit,  or  efficiency,  or  w^iatever  you  may  call  it,  to  set  her- 
self to  profitable  work,  in  a  country  where  profitable  work 
is  as  plenty  as  it  is  here,  has  not  sense  enough  to  be  put  at 
the  head  of  an  enterprise  which  requires  so  much  as  does 
horticulture  or  agriculture.  Farms  for  women  ?  Why,  it 
demands  science  to  drive  a  pair  of  oxen  !  The  ox  knoweth 
its  owner,  and  if  that  owner  be  a  nervous,  unobserving,  un- 
reasoning, undecided,  inefficient  woman,  do  you  think  the 
ox  will  not  speedily  find  it  out?  Moreover,  though  work  in 
a  garden  looks  light,  and  even  romantic,  in  the  columns  of 
the  agricultural  newspaper,  I  think  it  will  be  found  more  se- 
vere and  more  wearing  than  work  within  doors.  The  flow- 
ers that  grow  in  print  grow  gayly,  with  scarcely  the  soiling 
of  a  lady's  finger  in  the  cultivation  ;  but  the  flowers  that 
grow  in  gardens  grow  under  the  old  dispensation,  by  the 
sweat  of  somebody's  brow.  How  much  more  potatoes  and 
beets !     That  brow  ought  to  be  a  man's,  even  if  the  brain 


a)id  ]Vorthlessjiess.  113 

behind  it  be  a  woman's.  Something  may  come  of  setting 
women  at  work  in  the  fields,  but  I  do  not  believe  the  class 
of  women  whom  it  is  the  intention  thus  to  aid  have  the  skill 
to  manage  or  the  strength  to  till  a  farm. 

The  women  who  own  and  cultivate  land,  and  make  it 
profitable,  are  not  those  whose  sufierings  induce  the  com- 
passionate to  claim  for  them  state  aid.  They  are  women 
of  nerve,  and  ingenuity,  and  independence.  Would  it  not 
be  a  less  costly,  less  hazardous,  and  less  objectionable  ex- 
periment to  seek  to  perfect  the  weaker  sisters  in  certain 
mechanical  work,  which  makes  no  unusual  draught  on  their 
mind  or  their  strength,  but  which  does  require  patience,  ac- 
curacy, care,  and  practice  ?  Would  it  not  be  better  to  enter 
the  domains  which  women  have  overrun,  but  not  occupied, 
rather  than  those  into  which  they  have  not  yet  penetrated  ? 
Outdoor  work  has  hitherto  fallen  to  man,  and  indoor  work 
to  woman,  yet  men  do  even  indoor  work  better  than  wom- 
en. There  are  thousands  of  female  cooks,  and  the  large 
majority  of  them  are  bunglers.  There  are  not  a  great  many 
male  cooks,  but  they  are  generally  good.  I  admit  that  1 
make  these  assertions  necessarily  from  a  limited  induction 
— rather  as  impressions  than  as  positive  knowledge  ;  but  let 
them  go  for  what  they  are  worth.  I  believe  there  are  few 
who  will  not  confess  that  a  man-servant  at  the  table,  at  the 
door,  at  the  cooking,  and  the  sweeping,  is  not  only  "better 
style,"  but  is  a  more  efficient  member  of  the  household 
staff  You  are  more  sure  that  the  work  will  be  promptly, 
thoroughly,  and  quietly  done  with  a  man  at  the  fore  than  a 
woman.  This  is  not  in  the  smallest  degree  a  statement  in 
a  woman's  disfavor.  It  only  goes,  with  many  other  things, 
to  show  that  women  were  not  made  for  toil,  whether  indoors 
or  out.  Men  were  made  for  both,  and,  therefore,  when  men 
and  women  compete,  men  must  always  win.  But,  if  women 
can  not  compete  with  men  in  those  fields  of  which  they 


114  Wo  matins  Worth 

have  held  undisturbed  possession  for  generations,  how  can 
they  hope  to  do  so  in  those  which  have  been  hitherto  occu- 
pied by  men  ?  If  men,  as  soon  as  they  begin  to  do  what 
women  have  always  been  doing,  bear  away  the  palm,  how 
can  women  hope  to  hold  their  own  where  men  have  all  the 
advantage  of  superior  strength  and  practice  ?  Failing  in  a 
business  where  they  have  much  experience  but  little  capital, 
they  would  embark  in  a  business  where  they  have  less  cap- 
ital and  no  experience  at  all.  Since,  now,  women's  need  is 
so  imperative,  would  it  not  be  better  to  take  them  where 
they  are,  and  perfect  them  in  those  matters  wherein  they 
have  made  a  beginning  ? 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  women  hard  pressed  by  the 
exigencies  of  life  should  have  leisure  to  be  broadly  wise. 
The  poor  seamstress  is  absorbed  in  getting  her  work  done 
in  season  to  pay  the  rent,  and  to  her  a  suburban  house  and 
an  acre  of  land  rent-free  must  seem  a  paradise.  The  igno- 
rant girls  who  organize  disorder  in  our  kitchens  and  discom- 
fort in  our  houses  are  hardly  to  be  blamed,  for  no  one  has 
taught  them  the  arts  of  order  and  comfort.  It  is  but  natu- 
ral that  women  who  are  actually  suffering  should  snatch  at 
any  hope  of  relief,  and  should  send  up  a  great  and  bitter 
cry  for  relief  when  they  have  no  hope.  But  the  men  and 
women  who  arise  as  leaders  to  these  people  are  under  the 
strongest  obligations  to  be  wise.  If  it  is  ever  lawful  to  be 
inconsequent  and  inconclusive,  it  is  not  before  an  audience 
to  whom  wrong  doctrine  means  immediate  and  disastrous 
wrong-doing.  It  has  never  been  demonstrated  that  any 
person  has  suffered  in  mind,  body,  or  estate  from  our  long 
delay  in  discovering  the  undulatory  theory  of  light ;  and,  if 
one  day  some  new  philosopher  shall  arise  and  put  this  the- 
ory to  rout  by  irrefragable  proof  that  light  is  a  fixed  and 
solid  body,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  our  happiness  or  well- 
being  is  to  be  consciously  enhanced  thereby.     But  if  the 


mid  Worthkssness.  115 

women  of  this  country  are  suffering  because  they  can  not  or 
will  not  work,  and  if  the  Prophetess  Deborah  arises  and  tells 
them  that  they  are  suffering  because  their  selfish  employers 
will  not  pay  them,  or  selfish  society  will  not  employ  them, 
Deborah  does  them  immediate  and  serious  harm.  Double 
harm,  for  she  takes  their  attention  away  from  the  only  di- 
rection in  which  relief  can  come  to  them,  and  fastens  it 
upon  a  spot  from  which  permanent  relief  can  never  come. 
And  because  she  is  a  woman  and  a  friend  she  does  her  sad 
work  all  the  more  effectually. 


ii6  Woman^s  Worth 


VI. 

WOMEN  AMONG  THE  PROPHETS. 

Observing  the  shiftlessness — I  do  not  know  any  more 
conaprehensive  word — which  characterizes  so  many  working- 
women,  and  which  shows  the  point  of  the  Scripture,  "  The 
destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  poverty,"  I  noticed  one  day 
that  a  woman  was  advertised  to  address  the  working-women 
in  one  of  our  large  cities.  I  had  never  heard  a  woman  lec- 
ture— in  public,  and  had  no  special  sympathy  with  the  feel- 
ing that  would  prompt  a  woman  to  do  so.  Yet  one  can 
hardly  take  note  of  the  distress  of  the  poor,  and  see  how 
surely  that  distress  is  brought  about  by  their  ignorance  of 
ways  and  means,  without  longing  to  lift  up  his  voice  in  sug- 
gestion and  assistance.  No,  it  is  no  wonder  that  a  woman 
of  ability  and  benevolence,  gifted  with  power  of  speech, 
should  find  all  her  native  reluctance  overborne  by  a  strong 
desire  to  serve  the  feeble  and  impoverished.  And  what  an 
opportunity  !  One  of  the  largest  halls  in  one  of  the  largest 
cities  in  the  country,  filled  with  men  and  women — working- 
women  largely — favorably  inclined  to  the  speaker,  and  list- 
ening to  her  voice  as  that  of  a  friend  and  a  superior.  Will 
she  use  the  eloquence,  the  wit,  the  pathos,  the  imagination 
which  have  been  so  freely  attributed  to  her,  in  enforcing 
upon  these  struggling  women  the  importance  of  excellence, 
of  thoroughness,  of  punctuality ;  the  indispensableness  of 
keeping  an  engagement,  the  necessity  of  doing  what  work 
presents  itself?  Will  she  show  them  that  it  is  skill  which 
wins  ?  Will  she  hint  to  them  any  way  by  which  they  can 
learn  what  they  do  not  know,  or  improve  upon  what  they  do 
know,  or  transfer  their  goods  to  better  markets,  or  take  ad- 


a7id  WortJilessncss.  117 

vantage  of  the  markets  that  exist  ?  Alas !  I  had  time  to 
think  of  this,  and  much  more.  The  lecture  was  advertised 
to  begin  at  eight  in  one  paper,  and  in  another  at  half  past 
seven.  I  inwardly  fear  that  it  is  some  womanish  inaccuracy 
that  has  caused  this  discrepancy  ;  but  perhaps  it  is  some 
man's  blundering.  Let  us  hope  so  ;  at  any  rate,  let  us  say 
so.  To  make  sure,  we  are  on  the  spot  soon  after  seven. 
The  half  hour  comes  and  goes.  So  much,  then,  is  proved  : 
the  lecture  begins  at  eight.  Eight  arrives,  and  the  lecturer 
does  not.  Five  minutes  past  eight,  and  an  audience  of 
thousands  waiting ;  ten  minutes  past  eight,  and  thousands 
of  working-women  waiting.  It  is  to  be  feared  something 
dreadful  has  happened — or  hoped.  Seventeen  minutes  past 
eight,  and  a  lady  comes  forward  on  the  platform  and  says, 
"Miss  Lecturer  hopes  you  will  excuse  her.  She  only  ar- 
rived on  the  last  train,  and  has  been  very  busy."  And,  with- 
out farther  preamble,  the  lecturer  takes  up  her  parable. 

Who  does  not  see  that  in  the  very  beginning,  before  a 
word  was  spoken,  the  lecturer  had  done  those  working- 
women  a  greater  mischief  than  all  her  talk  could  undo  ?  In 
one  of  their  worst  habits  she  had  directly  confirmed  them. 
Stronger  than  by  any  spoken  language  she  had  said  to  them, 
"  It  is  of  no  consequence  that  you  keep  your  engagements. 
Engagements  are  not  of  any  account.  Punctuality  is  an  un- 
important matter.  Strict  promptness  has  nothing  to  do  with 
business.  It  is  just  the  same  to  dawdle  along  fifteen  min- 
utes behind  time  as  it  is  to  be  exact  to  the  minute." 

Understand,  her  crime  was  not  in  being  late.  If  the  in- 
troducing lady  had  said,  "  The  train  in  which  Miss  Lecturer 
came  was  thrown  from  the  track,  and  detained  seventeen 
minutes,"  or,  "  She  tore  her  gown  in  coming  out  of  the  house, 
and  was  obliged  to  go  back  and  change  it,"  the  evil  would 
have  been  avoided  ;  but  the  excuse  given  was  no  excuse  at 
all,  and  was  a  lesson  in  unpunctuality.     The  lady  had  made 


ii8  ^-  Woman^s  Worth 

an  appointment  to  address  five  thousand  persons  say  at 
eight  o'clock.  Why  did  she  leave  home  in  the  last  train 
if  the  last  train  would  not  enable  her  to  meet  that  appoint- 
ment? If  her  course  were  unavoidable,  she  should  have 
said  so  ;  if  it  were  avoidable,  she  should  not  have  taken  it. 
It  is  an  insult  to  any  audience  to  keep  them  waiting.  To 
an  audience  of  working-women,  assembled  for  the  ameliora- 
tion of  their  condition,  it  is  an  irreparable  injury. 

After  the  hungry  sheep  had  a  shepherd  to  look  up  to, 
how  were  they  fed  ? 

It  is  impossible  to  give  an  analysis  or  an  outline  of  the 
lecture.  It  had  apparently  no  plan.  It  had  certainly  no 
coherence.  It  consisted  of  a  collection  of  remarks  bearing 
something  of  the  same  relation  to  its  subject  as  did  Mr.  Ar- 
temus  Ward's  lecture  to  his  "  Babes  in  the  Wood."  This  is 
not  necessarily  a  defect.  It  would  be  difficult  sometimes  to 
find  the  central  point  of  Mr.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson's  lec- 
tures, yet  no  one  would  choose  he  should  wander  in  paths 
less  devious.  A  large  part  of  the  lecture  consisted  in  the 
enunciation  of  truths  which  no  one  doubts,  and  the  an- 
nouncement of  facts  which  are  universally  received.  The 
time  has  come  to  act.  Women  are  not  so  well  off  to  be 
freed  from  responsibility.  The  highest  motto  in  life  is 
"Onward  and  upward."  Women  must  work  in  order  to  be 
healthy.  As  things  are,  women  often  marry  for  a  living, 
which  is  very  dishonorable ;  and  thousands  of  souls  are 
steeped  in  the  blackness  of  darkness  because — it  was  not 
very  clear  why  ;  but,  as  far  as  one  could  make  out,  because 
things  are  as  they  are.  Manual  labor  is  not  liked  by  men 
or  women.  Masons  receive  four  dollars  a  day,  and  clerks 
two ;  yet  there  are  many  thousands  more  clerks  than  masons 
in  New  York.  Wherefore  make  labor  honorable.  Rever- 
ence masons  as  much  as  you  do  clerks.  Myriads  of  women 
are  living  in  a  dreadful  condition  in  New  York.     They  might 


and  Worthies sness.  119 

have  been  ministers  or  lawyers  if  they  had  received  a  proper 
training.  As  it  is,  their  Hfe  is  drinking  away  at  the  point  of 
the  needle.     And  so  on,  and  so  on.     But  what  of  it  ? 

And  yet  these  generalities  were  the  best  of  it.  When  it 
came  to  particular  application,  the  case  was  pitiable.  The 
Hartford  Insurance  Company  was  taken  to  task  for  not  in- 
suring the  lives  of  women  as  well  as  those  of  men.  "Are 
not  women  liable  to  be  killed  as  well  as  men  ?"  asks  the  lec- 
"  turer,  eloquently.  But  would  any  wise  man  or  woman  have 
us  believe  that  an  insurance  company  is  conducted  on  any 
other  principle  than  that  of  making  money? — is  impelled, 
for  instance,  by  a  prejudice  against  women  1  There  needs 
no  ghost,  it  would  seem,  to  tell  us  that,  if  a  company  will  not 
insure  the  hves  of  women,  it  is  simply  because  they  do  not 
find  their  account  in  it,  and  not  because  they  have  a  blind 
belief  that  women  do  not  die,  or  a  depraved  indifference  as 
to  whether  they  die  or  not.  No  reform  seems  more  hope- 
less than  an  attempt  to  reform  insurance  companies  in  this 
respect ,  and  we  shall  secure  equal  rights  to  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness  a  thousand  years  before  we  shall  se- 
cure equal  rights  to  life-insurance  from  these  stiff-necked  and 
uncircumcised  corporations,  unless  we  can  convince  them 
that  they  will  declare  greater  dividends  by  such  equality ! 

Another  practical  suggestion  in  the  lecture  was  that,  as 
higher  salaries  are  paid  to  male  clerks  in  Washington  than 
to  female,  the  male  clerks  should  relinquish  their  desks  to 
women,  go  West,  and  till  the  land.  Granting  this  to  be  an 
excellent  recommendation  to  the  young  men,  what  was  its 
value  in  a  lecture  to  working-women  ?  Was  any  one  of  them 
likely  to  be  helped  out  of  her  difficulties  by  it  ?  What  sor- 
row of  a  woman  is  soothed  or  what  struggle  softened  by  her 
being  told  that  some  man  ought  to  give  her  his  twelve-hun- 
dred-dollar office,  and  retire  to  the  backwoods — unless  he 
marches  to  the  backwoods  ? 


I20  Woman's  Worth 

Suppose  he  does ;  is  the  case  decidedly  gained  ?  Is  it 
certain  that  the  country  would  be  better  for  the  change? 
Could  the  clerical  work  of  the  government,  with  certain  ad- 
vantage, be  taken  out  of  the  hands  that  have  always  held  it, 
and  put  into  those  that  have  never  tried  it  to  any  large  ex- 
tent, and  have  not  always  been  successful  even  in  their  lim- 
ited trials  ? 

And  if  young  men  will  be  clerks,  and  will  not  be  masons, 
what  are  the  working-women  to  do  about  it  ?  Masons  make 
four  dollars  a  day,  and  work  eight  hours ;  and  clerks  make 
two  dollars  a  day,  and  work  twelve  hours  ;  and  professional 
men  make  nothing,  and  are  twenty  hours  a  day  about  it. 
What  then  ?  "  Make  labor  honorable,"  says  the  lecturer. 
How  ?  I  ask,  as  a  disciple.  In  a  general  way,  labor  is  hon- 
orable ;  in  the  divine  economy,  it  is  desirable  ;  but  in  prac- 
tical daily  life  we  all  wish  to  be  rid  of  it  as  fast  and  as  far 
as  possible.  Nor  is  it  likely  ever  to  be  otherwise.  No  ad- 
vance in  civilization  or  enlightenment  will  ever  make  labor 
any  thing  but  a  burden.  Indeed,  we  measure  our  civiliza- 
tion by  the  extent  to  which  we  shift  the  weight  of  labor  from 
our  own  shoulders  to  the  forces  of  Nature.  An  honest  man 
is  honored,  but  we  all  recognize  the  fact  that  brain-power  is 
of  a  finer  and  higher  order  than  muscle-power,  and  we  never 
shall  and  we  never  can  help  paying  greater  homage  to  the 
one  than  to  the  other.  Indeed,  we  shall  long  strive  after 
the  semblance  of  the  one  more  strenuously  than  after  the 
substance  of  the  other.  But,  even  granting  that  it  is  manly 
to  be  a  mason,  and  effeminate  to  be  a  clerk,  how  does  that 
heal  the  grievous  hurt  of  the  daughters  of  my  people  ?  If 
merchants  persist  in  hiring  boys  inatead  of  girls,  what  can 
the  girls  do  ?  How  are  serving-women  helped  in  the  battle 
of  life  by  being  told  that  they  ought  to  have  the  place  which 
men  will  not  give  up,  and  which  women  can  not  secure  ? 

Aqd  suppose  the  serving-women  of  New  York  might  make 


and  Wortlilcssiicss.  121 

good  lawyers  if  they  were  properly  trained — how  are  they 
to  be  trained  ?  They  have  no  means  to  support  themselves 
while  learning  a  useful  trade,  says  the  lecturer.  Very  true. 
There  are  scores  of  boys  in  the  same  predicament.  Some- 
times they  make  a  brave  wrestle  with  fate,  and  overcome. 
Sometimes  they  go  down  in  the  conflict,  and  lie  in  unknown 
graves.  Sometimes  they  never  strive  at  all.  It  is  the  old 
unsolved  and  insoluble  problem  of  evil.  Hundreds  and 
thousands  of  souls,  men  and  women,  never  seem  to  have  a 
fair  chance  in  life.  If  only  all  human  beings  were  wise  and 
virtuous,  the  serving-women  of  New  York  might  become 
chief  justices.  If  wishes  were  horses,  beggars  might  ride; 
but  is  it  worth  while  to  collect  five  thousand  beggars  in 
their  best  clothes  in  one  room  to  tell  them  so  at  fifty  cents 
a  ticket  1 

We  were  given  also  a  pathetic  and  eloquent  invective 
against  men  in  general,  and  Philadelphians  in  particular,  on 
account  of  a  certain  young  woman  who  was  then  lying  in 
prison  under  charge  of  having  slain  her  illegitimate  infant. 
Her  story  was  told  with  great  solemnity  and  sternness,  and 
the  young  person  was  invested  with  a  sentiment,  a  tender- 
ness, and  an  interest  which  we  do  not  always  take  to  women 
who  have  married  their  husbands  and  not  murdered  their 
children.  The  poor  creature  had  been  betrayed  by  hypoc- 
risy in  high  places,  and  was  perishing  from  cold  and  hunger  ; 
with  woman's  devotion,  she  refused  to  give  the  name  of  her 
seducer,  lest  she  might  bring  to  grief  the  wife  whom  he  had 
subsequently  married  ;  the  lawyer  whom  she  had  employed 
had  grasped  all  her  money  and  left  her  defenseless ;  the 
Philadelphians  in  general,  we  could  but  infer,  were  a  san- 
guinary race,  famished  for  a  poor  girl's  blood  :  and  would  a 
jury  of  WOMEN,  think  you,  have  doomed  this  young  girl  to 
die? 

Now,  if  this  appeal,  under  the  circumstances,  meant  any 
F 


12  2  Woman^s  Worth 

thing  definite,  it  meant  that  this  woman  did  not  receive  full 
justice  because  she  was  judged  by  men  ;  while,  if  she  had 
been  tried  by  a  jury  of  women,  she  would  have  been  more 
fairly — that  is,  more  leniently — treated. 

Is  it  possible  that  any  woman  can  believe  that  female 
criminals  would  receive — I  do  not  say  more  justice,  for  that 
is  quite  possible— but  more  lenity  at  the  hands  of  women 
than  at  those  of  men?  This  is  a  subject  which  hardly  ad- 
mits of  discussion,  and  on  which  discussion  is  fruitless.  But 
it  seems  to  me  that  women  who  are  guilty — especially  of 
this  class  of  ci  imes — have  need  to  pray  with  peculiar  fervor, 
From  all  women  judges  and  women  juries,  good  Lord,  de- 
liver us ! 

It  hardly  needed  subsequent  developments  to  show  that 
the  case  was  chiefly  a  made-up  one.  Philadelphia  is  a  re- 
spectable American  city ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  unspeak- 
able and  indelible  infamy  which  broods  over  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  in  New  York,  and  which  puts  to  shame  our 
boast  of  the  typical  American  gentleman,  it  is  impossible  to 
believe  that  any  American  community  of  men,  with  no  po- 
litical pressure  upon  them,  could  do  to  death  a  helpless,  in- 
nocent young  woman.  Notwithstanding  the  hard-hearted- 
ness  of  masculine  Philadelphia,  and  the  thrilling  tones  of 
the  speaker,  and  the  tears  of  her  audience,  I  confess  that  I 
held  a  stolid,  stoical  belief  that  the  prisoner  was  perfectly 
safe,  even  in  the  dungeons  of  Philadelphia.  So  one  was  not 
surprised  when  affidavits  from  her  own  hand  robbed  the  un- 
happy girl  of  all  the  romance  and  all  the  delicacy  with  which 
she  had  been  invested,  and  of  all  the  sympathy  which  her 
alleged  oppression  had  worked,  and,  without  making  her 
personally  any  less  an  object  of  profound  pit}^,  took  her  case 
entirely  out  of  the  region  of  national  eloquence  and  invec- 
tive, and  left  it  where  it  first  lay,  in  the  hands  of  local  justice 
and  benevolence. 


and  Worthies sncss,  123 

Undoubtedly  our  laws  are  defective,  and  their  administra- 
tion imperfect,  but  it  is  not  by  such  processes  that  they  are 
likely  to  be  improved.  A  good  cause  suffers  more  from 
being  defended  with  false  statements  than  from  going  unde- 
fended, or  even  unespoused. 

I  can  not  refrain  from  adding,  in  passing,  that  the  old, 
unwritten,  but  inevitable  social  law  which  makes  woman, 
though  the  least  offender,  bear  the  heaviest  penalty  for 
crimes  against  personal  purity,  seems  to  me  less  harmful  to 
woman  than  that  sentiment  which  makes  the  criminal  a 
martyr,  suffering  from  the  persecutions  of  a  hard-hearted, 
pharisaic,  because  virtuous  world.  There  goes  John  Bun- 
yan,  but  for  the  grace  of  God,  in  every  thief  and  murderer ; 
but  if,  on  that  account,  theft  and  murder  are  to  be  made  po- 
,etic  and  pathetic,  not  to  say  saintly,  it  will  be  likely  to  in- 
crease the  number  of  those  whom  not  even  the  grace  of  God 
can  keep  John  Bunyans.  I  know  that  the  destruction  of  the 
poor  is  their  poverty,  but  I  do  not  believe  that  in  this  coun- 
try women  are  ever  reduced  to  the  alternative  of  starvation 
or  shame.  If  the  alternative  ever  faces  them,  they  have  re- 
duced themselves  to  it. 

While  I  am  writing  this  appears  a  letter  in  the  public 
prints  saying, 

"  No  woman  will  embrace  a  life  of  shame  unless  she  is 
driven  to  it,  as  can  be  easily  proved  in  ninety-nine  cases  out 
of  every  hundred 

"  Perhaps  some  will  ask, '  How  do  you  know  all  this  ?'  I 
answer,  from  a  personal  knowledge  of  city  life  in  all  its  va- 
rious phases  ;  and  I  could  cite  hundreds  of  cases  that  have 
come  under  my  notice  during  the  past  twenty  years ;  but  I 
will  mention  only  one  as  an  instance,  which  is  of  late  occur- 
rence, which  is  true  in  every  particular. 

"  Not  long  ago,  a  gentleman  of  education,  who  had  for- 
merly been  a  teacher  of  languages,  came  to  this  city  with  his 
family — his  wife  being  an  accomplished  lady,  and  moving  in 
the  best  society  of  our  sister  cities.     The  husband  and  fa- 


124  Woman  s  Worth 

ther  sought  employment,  and  found,  after  a  month's  search, 
a  situation,  which  he  filled  with  satisfaction  to  his  employ- 
ers till  about  the  ist  of  P'ebruary,  when  he  was  discharged 
because  business  was  dull.  Since  then  he  has  searched  for 
employment  in  vain.  For  some  time  his  little  family  have 
seen  much  suffering,  some  days  starvation  actually  staring 
them  in  the  face.  In  such  circumstances,  with  little  ones 
crying  for  bread,  is  it  a  wonder  that  the  wife  and  mother, 
who  is  a  good-looking  lady,  should  go  on  to  the  street, 

"  '  And  sell  her  soul  to  whoever  would  buy, 
Dealing  in  shame  for  a  morsel  of  bread' 

to  keep  her  little  ones  from  starving?  She  tried  to  get  a 
situation  as  teacher  of  music,  but  failed,  and  was  finally  of- 
fered a  situation  to  play  the  piano  in  a  Broadway  concert 
saloon  at  twenty  dollars  a  week,  but  declined,  as  it  was  too 
public.  I^learn  that  she  will  enter  upon  a  life  of  shame,  or 
else  end  her  sufferings  in  death,  before  she  will  longer  see 
her  loved  ones  suffer.  This  is  a  true  picture  of  many  cases 
which  daily  take  place  in  this  city  of  boasted  charity  and 
religion." 

And  every  case  is  deserving  of  the  severest  condemna- 
tion  and  abhorrence.  Here  are  two  able-bodied  adults,  in 
a  country  where  the  unskilled  laborer,  twenty  miles  from  a 
city,  can  earn  two  dollars  a  day  and  rent  a  tenement  for 
twenty  dollars  a  year,  and  where  a  woman  in  a  city,  in  a  vo- 
cation not  indeed  reputable,  but  not  vicious,  can  earn  twen- 
ty dollars  a  week,  counting  themselves  reduced  to  the  al- 
ternative of  starvation  or  shame  !  A  woman  refuses  twenty 
dollars  a  week,  not  because  the  work  or  its  tendencies  are 
bad,  but  because  the  situation  is  too  public,  and  considers 
herself  forced  into  wickedness.  She  prefers  private  vice  to 
public  virtue.  I,  for  one,  am  quite  willing  that  such  persons 
should  starve.  The  children,  indeed,  are  objects  of  pity  and 
charity ;  but  if  the  parents  choose  to  end  their  sufferings  in 
death  rather  then  in  a  country  farm-house,  it  is  difficult  to 
see  why  society  should  interpose  any  objection. 

The  writer  makes   special  asseverations  of  truth.     No 


and  Worthlessness.  125 

doubt  his  story  is  true,  and  true  in  the  hundreds  of  cases  he 
does  not  mention.  No  doubt  "  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of 
every  hundred"  a  Hfe  of  shame  comes  because  people  would 
rather  die  both  the  first  and  second  deaths  than  work.  Vir- 
tue may  proffer  toil,  plain  clothes,  hard  hands,  but  she  prof- 
fers also  certain  and  sufficient  food  and  shelter.  Vice  holds 
out  apparent  ease  and  shabby  splendor  ;  and  women,  hered- 
itarily weak,  weakened  farther  by  unfavorable  circumstances, 
lapse  to  vice  rather  than  work  for  virtue.  But  a  will  ener- 
vated if  not  annihilated,  a  moral  sense  blunted  if  not  de- 
stroyed, will  never  be  strengthened  and  sharpened  to  effect- 
ive activity  by  being  enveloped  in  never  so  picturesque  a 
cloud  of  melodramatic  sentiment,  while  we  do  grievous 
harm  to  the  weakness  which  is  still  innocent  when  we  ad- 
mit that  vice  can  be  any  thing  but  the  lowest  depth  of  vul- 
garity and  the  last  degree  of  profaneness. 

A  woman  has  the  same  right  to  be  a  lecturer  that  she  has 
to  be  a  laundress.  I  will  confess  that  all  my  prejudices  and 
all  my  instincts  were  against  it.  But  when,  for  the  first 
time,  I  saw  an  audience  gathered  to  listen  to  a  woman,  the 
right  and  reason  of  the  thing  rose  up  so  strongly  that  in- 
stinct and  prejudice  were  forced  to  give  way.  Here  is  a 
company  of  respectable,  well-behaved  men  and  women, 
come  together  for  no  material  good,  but  for  mental  improve- 
ment or  amusement.  Woman's  sphere,  the  most  conserv- 
ative admit,  is  pre-eminently  the  sphere  of  influence  ;  and 
surely  a  woman  is  far  more  femininely  occupied  when  she 
stands,  well-dressed,  erect,  graceful,  dignified,  and  self-pos- 
sessed, before  a  respectable  assemblage,  and  speaks  to  them 

"  High  thoughts,  and  honorable  words, 
And  courtHness,  and  the  desire  of  fame, 
And  love  of  truth," , 

than  she  is  in  a  shabby  gown,  with  the  skirt  upturned  around 
the  waist ;  sleeves  pinned  above  hard,  red  elbows  ;  thin  hair, 


126  Woman^s  Worth 

untastefully  bunched  upon  the  back  of  her  head ;  coarse 
shoes,  and  no  collar;  bending  over  her  wash-tub  or  her 
cooking  -  stove ;  flying  from  broom  to  boiler;  all  womanly 
softness  and  beauty  worn  out  of  face  and  figure ;  all  wom- 
anly leisure  and  repose  chased  away  by  the  hard  require- 
ments of  life,  and  only  a  glimpse  of  the  woman  shining  now 
and  then  through  the  dreary  crust  of  the  drudge.  Indeed, 
the  vocation  of  lecturer  may  come  peculiarly  within  woman's 
sphere,  for  her  work  is  work  upon  mind,  soul,  heart.  It  is 
hers  especially  to  teach,  to  entertain,  to  soften,  to  refine,  and 
the  more  persons  who  can  be  brought  under  her  influence 
the  better. 

But  we  also — we  the  public,  we  society,  we  the  audience, 
the  unregenerate,  hard-hearted,  money-making,  justice-de- 
manding world — have  the  same  right  to  require  good  lec- 
tures that  we  have  to  require  good  laundries.  And  because 
women  have  always  been  washer-women,  and  failure  in  that 
line  attracts  no  especial  notice  ;  while  women  have  not  long 
or  largely  been  lecturers,  and  failure  there  is  noticeable  and 
widespread  in  its  consequences,  it  would  seem  as  if  there 
were  an  imperative  need  that  women  should  be  good  lec- 
turers if  they  lecture  at  all.  I  acknowledge  that  this  is  a 
factitious  need,  a  requirement  created  by  the  peculiar  com- 
bination of  circumstances,  not  by  the  inherent  nature  of 
things.  For  example  :  the  lecture  to  which  I  have  referred 
was  indeed  inconsequent  rhetorical,  and  for  the  purposes 
for  which  it  was  professedly  designed  worthless  ;  but  in 
point  of  substance,  in  point  of  logic,  and  rhetoric,  and  men- 
tal worth,  it  was  •  every  whit  as  good  as  Mr.  Actor's,  and 
Mr.  Actor  is  the  most  popular  lecturer  in  the  country.  He 
makes  people  cry,  though  it  is  hard  to  see  why.  He  makes 
them  laugh,  and  it  is  very  easy  to  see  why.  For  the  rest, 
he  is  always  on  the  side  of  temperance  and  morality ;  but 
if  you  look  at  his  lecture  for  argument,  or  intellectual  power, 


and  Worthies sjiess.  127 

or  any  thing  but  acting  and  anecdote,  you  look  in  vain  ;  and 
he  receives  I  do  not  know  how  many  hundred  dollars  a 
night,  and  is  engaged  for  I  do  not  know  how  many  hundred 
nights  in  a  year.  But  the  lady,  also,  is  on  the  side  of  tem- 
perance and  morality ;  she  is,  too,  on  the  side  of  suffering 
women,  which  is  even  more  definite  and  praiseworthy.  Why 
should  she  not  also,  if  she  can,  secure  her  hundreds  of  dol- 
lars for  hundreds  of  nights  ?  Why  shall  a  man  make  his 
fortune  with  a  single  talent,  in  spite  of  deficiencies,  while  a 
woman  must  keep  hers  in  a  napkin,  unless  she  has  the 
other  nine  to  go  with  it  ? 

Why,  indeed  ?  Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  she  should. 
So  far  as  the  Conservatives  are  concerned,  she  should  not. 
If  an  opponent  of  the  woman  movement  were  to  make  this 
affirmation,  he  should  immediately  be  put  down  with  a  strong 
hand.  For  any  thhig  he  has  to  say,  a  woman  has  the  same 
right  to  play  the  fool  that  a  man  has.  He  should  no  more 
demand  from  her  sweetness  and  light  than  from  a  man.  In- 
deed, we  will  not  let  our  opponent  off  so  lightly.  We  will 
hoist  the  remorseless  but  now  wretched  ruffian  with  his  own 
petard ;  and  when  he  says  that  women  are  not  intended  by 
Nature  for  public  speakers — since  he  attended  the  last  wom- 
an's convention  in  his  own  town^  where  a  good  many  women 
spoke,  and  he  could  count  on  his  fingers  all  who  could  be 
fairly  reckoned  as  good  public  speakers — up  he  goes  without 
mercy.  His  own  words  condemn  him.  After  generations 
of  dumbness,  with  no  training,  no  traditions,  and  scarcely 
any  education,  women  at  length  mount  the  rostrum,  and  in 
a  single  assembly,  in  a  small  city,  an  iron-clad  doctor  of  di- 
vinity needs  all  his  fingers  in  estimating  the  number  of  good 
speakers  !  He  would  have  to  call  in  no  further  assistance 
than  his  thumbs  could  afford  if  he  were  in  an  assembly  of 
men.  Ten  good  speakers  in  a  Sunday-school  convention 
or  a  conference  of  churches  is  a  thing  undreamed  of  in  lay 


128  JVo??ian^s  Worth 

philosophy.  It  would  be  difficult  for  an  advocate  of  female 
oratory  to  produce  a  stronger  argument  in  its  favor  than 
this  opponent  brings  forward — all  factiously,  indeed,  so  that 
he  shall  have  no  credit  for  it. 

But  speaking  not  as  an  opponent,  speaking  from  a  pro- 
found sympathy  with  the  sentiment  that  underlies  the  "wom- 
an movement,"  and  with  a  profound  contempt  for  the  in- 
sight and  intelligence  which  see  in  it  only  an  itching  for  no- 
toriety on  the  part  of  a  few  discontented  women,  it  is  a  great 
deal  worse  for  a  woman  to  give  a  poor  lecture  than  it  is  for 
a  man.  The  fruits  of  his  failure  he  gathers  alone ;  but  if 
a  woman  fails,  it  is  not  simply  laid  to  the  account  of  her  in- 
dividual weakness — it  is  the  character  of  her  class.  Her 
speech  is  sound  and  fury,  signifying  nothing ;  therefore  the 
woman's  rights  movement  is  a  reform  against  nature. 

Nothing  is  gained  for  the  cause  when  you  fall  back  on  the 
fact  that  this,  that,  and  the  other  female  lecturer  draws  large 
audiences  j  that  she  is  popular ;  that,  good  or  bad,  people 
go  to  hear  her.  "  Men,"  said  a  great-hearted  gentleman  to 
a  great-hearted  and  strong-minded  woman,  who  was  bewail- 
ing her  disappointment  on  hearing  a  much-applauded  lec- 
XMxess — "  men  don't  judge  her  so  severely  as  you.  She  is 
fine-looking — at  least  by  gas-light ;  and  they  don't  mind  if 
there  isn't  so  much  sense  and  substance,  /liked  her,  and 
I  would  go  again." 

But  the  point  we  are  all  up  in  arms  about  is  not  whether 
women  are  pretty,  and  graceful,  and  attractive.  They  have 
always  been,  and  always  been  acknowledged  that.  Not 
even  a  pulpit  or  a  platform  can  make  beauty  unlovely,  or 
grace  uncouth ;  but  certainly  the  pulpit  and  platform  are 
not  necessary  to  female  loveliness.  Women  are  not  break- 
ing out  in  public  for  the  sake  of  showing  how  fair  they  be  ! 
It  is  presumably  because  they  have  something  to  say  so  im- 
portant, so  irrepressible,  that  the  old  channels  of  communi- 


and  IVorthkssness.  129 

cation  are  insufficient,  and  it  is  worth  while  to  break  through 
all  the  prejudices  and  customs  that  hedge  them  in,  and  say 
their  say  in  cavalier  fashion  ;  or  they  do  it  for  the  simple 
and  honest  purpose  of  getting  a  living.  So  far  as  that  is 
their  motive,  I  do  not  quarrel  with  them.  But  when  a  wom- 
an comes  before  you  inspired  with  a  grand  purpose,  demand- 
ing great  opportunities,  advocating  a  great  cause,  and  em- 
ploys a  reasoning  and  a  rhetoric  that  are  good  for  nothing 
but  to  furnish  fallacies  and  infelicities  to  the  logic-class  in  a 
girls'  school,  the  woman  cause  has  not  gained — it  has  lost. 
No  woman  has  gained  any  thing  for  that  cause  so  long  as 
allowance  has  to  be  made  for  her  as  a  woman.  Except  so 
far  as  she  works  for  a  living,  she  does  not  justify  herself  for 
taking  hold  of  man's  work  unless  she  does  the  work  better 
than  men.  I  am  not  in  the  least  degree  exalted  or  exhil- 
arated by  hearing  a  woman  preach  unless  she  preaches  so 
powerfully  that  I  forget  she  is  a  woman.  If  we  are  to  have 
prosing  and  platitudes,  what  care  I  to  which  sex  the  plati- 
tudinarian belongs?  There  is  no  legal  disability  that  I 
know  of  Nothing  hinders  a  woman  from  lecturing  or 
preaching  except  lack  of  audiences.  Men  have  preached 
us  deaf  and  dumb,  or  bitter  and  bellicose,  with  their  inani- 
ties and  their  superficialities,  their  pettinesses  and  their  pas- 
sions also  petty.  Is  it  worth  while  to  have  brought  out 
mitrailleuse  and  Chassepot,  and  to  have  rent  the  heavens 
with  their  roaring,  for  the  sake  of  showing  that  women  can 
be  as  stupid  as  men,  if  they  only  have  the  chance  ? 

In  saying  that  the  female  preacher  should  make  her  audi- 
ence forget  that  she  is  a  woman,  it  is  not  necessary  to  de- 
mand that  she  should  be  like  a  man.  A  woman  can  scarce- 
ly be  more  distasteful  than  when  she  imitates  the  other  sex. 
Our  conservative  friends  are  very  right  in  fearing  that  wom- 
en will  be  extremely  disagreeable  if  the  new  movement 
makes  them  into  a  sort  of  man,  and  there  are  weak-minded 

F  2 


130  IVoman's  Worth 

women  enough  engaged  in  it  to  make  their  fears  not  wholly 
groundless.  Women  who  are  without  genius,  without  judg- 
ment, without  sweet  sound  sense  or  instinctive  delicacy,  but 
not  without  ability  in  certain  directions,  attach  themselves 
to  the  v/oman's  rights  cause  as  naturally  as  every  one  that 
was  in  distress,  and  every  one  that  was  in  debt,  and  every 
one  that  was  discontented,  gathered  themselves  unto  David 
in  the  Cave  of  Adullam.  These  women  are  not  necessarily 
noisy,  though  sometimes  they  are  noisy  ;  but  they  are  perti- 
nacious and  pushing,  virtuous,  but  altogether  abominable. 
If  they  become  ministers,  they  lean  on  their  elbows,  and 
press  down  the  leaves  of  their  sermons,  and  read  the  hymns 
badly,  and  begin  one  exercise  before  another  is  over,  just  as 
male  ministers  do ;  and  you  withdraw,  confirmed  in  your 
opinion  that  you  don't  want  to  hear  a  woman  preach.  If 
they  go  into  business,  they  raise  a  clamor  about  it ;  they 
are  interviewed  ;  their  ways,  means,  and  motives  are  chroni- 
cled  ;  they  frequent  the  haunts  of  men,  and  get  to  be  coarse* 
ly  mentioned.  They  take  up  the  dress  reform,  and  devise 
a  hybrid  costume,  which  combines  all  that  is  ugly  in  male 
attire,  and  rejects  all  that  is  graceful  in  the  Bloomer  suit, 
and  turns  a  woman  into  a  nondescript  object  which  ti  be- 
comes all  civilized  humanity  to  avoid,  and  secures  no  bene- 
fit that  is  not  just  as  well  secured  without  the  sacrifice  of  a 
single  line  of  beauty.  If  such  things  were  the  consequence 
of  woman's  enfranchisement,  better  that  women  never  were 
enfranchised.  Better  a  woman  should  be  unhealthily  than 
unbecomingly  dressed.  Better  she  should  be  a  useless  fire- 
side figure-head  than  a  noisy  nuisance.  Better  a  feminine 
than  a  masculine  fool.     But  the  choice  is  not  so  limited. 

I  have  seen  and  heard  a  woman  preach  sermons  with  an 
unction  which  any  clergyman  might  emulate,  to  an  audience 
whose  attention  any  clergyman  might  envy.  Her  addresses 
were  not  called  sermons,  and  her  listeners  were  not  called  a 


and  Worthies sness.  131 

congregation.  The  most  conservative  find  nothing  objec- 
tionable in  a  woman's  being  at  the  head  of  a  female  semi- 
nary, and  a  school  of  young  girls  is  a  perfectly  orthodox 
sphere  ;  but  the  interest  of  no  congregation  is  harder  to  se- 
cure, the  position  of  no  minister  is  more  commanding.  This 
lady  would  read  a  chapter  from  the  Bible,  select  her  text, 
and  for  half  or  three  quarters  of  an  hour  secure  the  rapt  at- 
tention, the  entire  sympathy  of  her  audience.  With  clear, 
impressive  voice,  with  speaking,  conquering  eyes,  with  mo- 
bile mouth  and  eloquent  hands,  with  decisive  and  incisive 
manner,  with  illustration  keen,  apt,  and  vivid,  in  language 
homely,  terse,  touching,  pathetic,  poetic,  amusing,  she  eluci- 
dated truth  ;  she  enforced  duty  \  she  aroused  impulse  ;  she 
stirred  conscience ,  she  incited  effort ;  she  touched  heart, 
till  her  congregation  sat  before  her  excited,  thrilled,  mag- 
netized. Like  a  man  !  Good  heavens !  There  are  no 
men.  Man  is  a  lost  art  beside  such  a  woman.  Let  her  go 
into  the  public  pulpit,  and  preach  as  she  preaches  in  her 
own,  and  you  would  no  more  be  reminded  of  a  man  minis- 
ter than  you  would  of  a  mastodon.  She  is  never  more  in- 
tensely, more  differentially,  so  to  speak,  and  I  will  say  more 
winsomely  a  woman  than  in  doing  this  very  manly  work. 
Therefore  the  work  is  not  necessarily  manly. 

I  have  heard  another  woman  speak  in  public,  and,  what 
Is  worse,  preside  over  public  meetings,  and,  what  is  worse 
still,  if  any  thing  can  be  worse,  these  meetings  were  woman's 
rights  conventions.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  any  thing 
more  profoundly  obnoxious  to  a  conservative  and  orthodox 
mind,  like — well,  if  the  egotism  may  be  pardoned — like  my 
own.  Yet  this  woman,  with  all  her  social  sins  upon  her 
head,  by  the  mere  charm  of  her  sweet,  simple  personality, 
by  the  force  of  her  pure  womanliness,  melted  away  antago- 
nistic prejudice,  and  won  all  hearts  to  do  her  reverence. 
She  walked  in  the  manly  ways  with  womanly  gait.      She 


132  JVo77ian's  Wo?'t/i 

threaded  the  devious  paths  of  parliamentary  law  with  an 
unconscious,  innocent  confidence  ;  and  when  sometimes 
she  hesitated,  she  appealed  to  superior  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience, not  only  without  shame,  but  with  a  natural  grace 
more  pleasing  than  knowledge  itself.  The  success  of  wom- 
an's rights  will  alienate  the  sexes,  will  they  ?  This  woman 
had  not  the  beauty  which  attracts  the  eye.  She  was  but 
comely  and  wholesome  ;  but  under  the  spell  of  her  musical, 
modulated,  varying  voice,  her  simple,  appealing,  child-like, 
yet  motherly  manner,  her  sound  sense  and  her  fervid  con- 
viction, every  fool  who  came  to  scoff  remained  to  approve 
and  admire.  I  was  amused  to  see  hard-headed  lawyers, 
who  had  only  advanced  from  contemptuous  indifference  to 
breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaughter  upon  strong-mind- 
ed  women,  involuntarily  rush  to  the  rescue  when  she  hesi- 
tated upon  some  involved  parliamentary  point.  They  were 
not,  perhaps,  converted  to  the  cause,  but  they  were,  at  least 
for  the  time,  converted  to  her.  And  I  observed,  too — for  I 
turned  all  eyes  and  counted  nothing  trivial—  I  observed  that 
her  husband  artfully  and  heroically  concealed  the  shame 
which  must  have  torn  his  heart,  stood  by  her  like  a  m.an, 
and  shawled  her,  and  cloaked  her,  and  cared  for  her,  unos- 
tentatiously, indeed,  but  as  naturally  and  "  protectingly"  as 
if  she  had  done  nothing  all  her  life  but  suckle  fools  and 
chronicle  small  beer.  And  what  man  has  done  man  may  do. 
It  is  such  women  as  these  in  the  pulpit  and  on  the  plat- 
form, and  only  such,  who  are  really  advancing  the  welfare 
of  women.  They  show  by  well-doing  what  woman  can  well 
do.  They  command  the  respect,  if  they  do  not  compel  the 
conviction  of  their  opponents.  And  it  is  this  which  is  the 
measure  of  fitness.  The  flattery  of  a  clique,  the  suffrage  of 
a  mutual  admiration  society,  the  laughter  and  applause  of 
galleries,  do  not  hinder  an  address  to  the  people  from  being 
false  in  logic,  foolish  in  sentiment,  a  grief  to  the  judicious,  a 


and  Worthlessness.  133 

snare  to  the  unwary.  When  the  charm  of  the  woman  sets 
off  comprehensiveness,  acuteness,  broad  and  just  thought, 
right  feehng  rightly  tempered,  wisdom  and  benevolence  com- 
bined, a  woman  is  never  more  in  her  sphere  than  when  she 
is  addressing  an  assembly  of  men  and  women.  But  when 
her  beauty  or  her  grace,  her  prettiness  or  her  ugliness,  has 
underneath  it  only  the  echo  of  thoughts,  the  shadow  of  ideas 
which  she  can  neither  comprehend  nor  reproduce ;  when 
she  has  only  vain  and  vapid  words  without  knowledge  ; 
crude  and  impracticable  measures  to  suggest;  a  culture 
whose  only  redeeming  point  is  that  it  is  shallow,  the  specta- 
cle is  simply  pitiable.  Over  against  her,  sitting  respectfully 
among  her  listeners,  are  men  of  life-long  study  and  experi- 
ence, of  severe  and  responsible  thought — men  whose  theo- 
ries have  every  day  to  be  put  to  the  touchstone  of  actual  trial, 
and  to  whom  her  random  talk  passes  for  the  vain  and  idle, 
though  well-meant  babbling  that  it  is.  They  are  courteous 
and  deferent ;  but  their  considerate  and  restrained  compli- 
ments are  a  greater  insult  to  the  female  understanding  than 
any  censure  could  be.  How  can  they  honor  the  female  in- 
tellect when  it  presents  to  them  such  ground  and  lofty  tum- 
bling as  its  ideal  of  agility  and  activity  ?  How  can  they  be- 
lieve in  the  gravity,  the  equipoise,  the  social  worth  of  a  wom- 
an's mind,  when  the  first  thing  they  are  obliged  to  do  for  this 
representative  woman  is  to  put  aside  all  thought  of  mental 
gravity  and  equipoise,  and  fall  bick  upon  the  world-old  flat- 
teries and  fooleries  of  personal  compliment,  or  pass  beyond 
into  a  half  bitter  and  half  ludicrous  disgust  ? 


134  IVoman's  Worth 


VII. 

DISABILITIES. 

It  is  sometimes  amusing  to  see  the  great  gulf  fixed  be- 
tween general  assertions  and  particular  facts  in  some  of  our 
statements  regarding  women.  Neither  side  monopolizes  the 
inconsequence.  Perhaps  that  religious  and  respectable  ec- 
clesiastical newspaper,  edited  by  doctors  of  divinity,  and 
conducted  with  irreproachable  masculine  logic,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  leading  off  the  dance  of  non  sequiturs  when  it 
gravely  says : 

"  Having  so  persistently  and  skillfully  engineered  the 
woman's  rights  movement  that  it  has  passed  beyond  the  re- 
gion where  it  encountered  only  indifference  or  scorn,  to  that 
where  it  meets  with  earnest  and  conscientious  opposition, 
the  advocates  of  the  reform  can  afford  to  pay  a  decent  re- 
spect to  the  opinions  of  their  opponents,  and  should,  there- 
fore, put  away  childish  babbling,  and  speak  as  becomes  men 
and  women  engaged  in  one  of  the  most  revolutionary  re- 
forms of  the  century." 

Can  even  a  D.D.  tell  us  why?  If  this  childish  babbling 
has  so  skillfully  and  persistently  advanced  the  cause,  why 
should  it  be  discontinued  1  Having  won  in  one  fierce  bat- 
tle, shall  the  revolutionists  now  throw  away  the  sword  they 
fought  with,  and  betake  themselves  to  some  other  weapon 
selected  by  their  adversaries  ?  Rather,  one  would  say,  if 
they  have  babbled  so  brilliantly  thus  far,  they  can  not  do 
better  than  babble  on  to  final  victory. 

But  we  woman's  rights  men  also  sometimes  roam  rather 
wildly  amid  cause  and  consequence.  "  The  stimulus  of  pol- 
itics, in  their  reaction  upon  the  mind,"  says  one  paper,  en- 


afid  Worthies sness.  135 

forcing  female  suffrage,  "is  immense.  The  American  girl 
never  felt  it  till  the  late  war.  Give  her  the  ballot,  and  the 
mass  of  her  powers  will  so  increase  ....  that  only  we, 
whose  mothers,  and  sisters,  and  wives  have  been  the  best 
man's  eyes  ever  looked  upon,  can  imagine  what  woman  will 
become." 

But  these  good  mothers,  sisters,  and  wives  grew  to  what 
they  were  without  the  ballot,  so  that  the  inference  we  draw 
is  directly  the  opposite  of  what  we  were  expected  to  draw. 
We  say  immediately,  no  matter  what  the  ballot  may  be  good 
for,  it  is  certainly  not  essential  to  the  excellence  of  Ameri- 
can girls,  since  they  grow  in  grace  without  it.  We  may 
need  wars  to  stir  them  to  activity.  We  do  not  need  suf- 
frage. 

"  Without  the  ballot,"  says  the  same  paper,  "  women  can 
never  permanently  share  in  this  vitalizing  experience"  [of 
political  campaigns].  Yet  another  column,  arguing  for  an- 
other purpose,  indeed,  says : 

"  The  Whig  party  elected  Harrison  and  Tyler  by  intro- 
ducing woman  for  the  first  time  into  their  great  political  assem- 
blies. .  .  .  The  presence  ofwomafi  was  the  talisman  of  Whig 
success.  The  abolition  question  gained  the  ear  of  the  peo- 
ple only  when  it  enlisted  the  aid  of  woman.  The  Liberty 
party  in  Ohio  obtained  its  first  animating  impulse  from  the 
thrilling  eloquence  of  Abby  Kelley.  .  .  .  The  presence  of 
women  in  Republican  meetings,  and  their  absence  from 
those  of  Democrats,  were  facts  conspicuous  from  the  very 
outset.  .  .  .  Informally  the  influence  of  woman  was  always 
prominent.  Who  can  estimate  the  influence  of  Harriet 
Beecher  Stovve's  '  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin'  upon  the  politics  of 
the  nation  ?  The  conscience  and  enthusiasm  of  woman 
elected  Lincoln,  and  sustained  the  Republicans  through  the 
war.  The  hunker  State  of  Connecticut  was  carried  at  the 
critical  moment  by  the  eloquent  addresses  of  Anna  Dickin- 
son." 

Really,  people  who  have  believed  in  a  sequence  of  thought 


136  JVoman's  JVort/i 

must  begin  to  rub  their  eyes  and  ask  themselves  if  they  are 
awake.  American  girls  must  have  the  ballot  to  make  therri 
worth  while,  because  American  girls  have  grown  into  the 
best  of  women  without  it.  American  women  must  have  the 
ballot  to  stir  up  their  interest  in  politics,  for  they  have  viv- 
ified parties,  aroused  principles,  carried  states,  elected  presi- 
dents, maintained  wars  without  it.  Under  which  king,  Be- 
zonian  ?  If  these  are  the  facts  we  bring  forward  to  show 
that  women  need  the  ballot,  what  kind  of  facts  should  we 
produce  to  show  that  they  do  not  need  it  ?  What  can  you 
do  with  a  syllogism  that  turns  somersaults  in  the  middle? 
The  premise  is  as  sound  as  a  nut.  The  conclusion  may  or 
may  not  be  true  ;  but  the  hidden  Major  Premise  looks  very 
little  like  a  fighting  soldier  when  we  unearth  him.  "  All 
persons,"  says  that  silent  gentleman,  forced  to  stand  and 
deliver — "  all  persons  who  for  thirty  years,  chiefly  of  peace, 
have  been  showing  intense  interest  in  and  exerting  a  marked 
effect  upon  politics  without  the  vote,  need  the  vote  in  order 
to  take  an  interest  in  politics  in  times  of  peaces"  I  greatly 
fear  that  Archbishop  Whately  would  not  find  his  hearty  con- 
tempt for  the  female  intellect  materially  diminished  if  this 
method  of  reasoning  be  the  device  of  the  female  brain. 

Again  :  "  Give  woman  the  ballot,"  says  one  column  of  the 
reform  organ,  "  and  their  motto  will  be.  Equal  pay  for  equal 
work ;  and  the  first  question  they  will  ask  the  would-be 
nominee  for  school  commissioner  will  be,  *  Will  you  faith- 
fully carry  out  our  motto  ?'  " 

But  another  column  of  the  same  paper  says : 

"Working-women  are  wanted  in  Colorado.  Reliable  re- 
ports say  that  a  thousand  could  find  immediate  employment 
there,  and  at  high  wages.  A  competent  girl  commands  bet- 
ter wages  there  than  a  male  laborer." 

And  also  : 

^'  Masculine  ministers  must  be  looking  out  for  their  lucre 


and  Worihlessness.  137 

as  well  as  their  laurels.  We  learn  that  some  women  are 
paid  $25  a  Sunday  for  supplying  the  same  pulpits  where 
doctors  of  divinity  are  compelled  to  put  up  with  or.ly  $15." 

How  is  this  ?  Are  we  agitating  to  bring  down  the  pay  of 
the  Colorado  girls  to  the  level  of  the  male  laborers  ?  In  the 
good  time  commg,  shall  not  the  Rev.  Mrs.  Smith  be  allowed 
to  receive  twenty-five  dollars  a  Sunday  because  the  Re\^ 
Mr.  Brown  was  paid  only  fifteen  ?  And  how  is  it  that  we 
need  the  ballot  to  secure  equal  pay  for  equal  v;ork,  when 
without  the  ballot  we  have  already  secured  unequal  pay  in 
the  woman's  favor  ? 

"  Going  to  New  York,"  says  the  biographer  of  a  woman  s 
rights  woman,  "with  her  brother  and  his  newly-wedded  wife, 
her  soul  was  agonized  with  the  thought  that  for  single 
women  there  was  no  place  in  the  universe.  The  world  had 
choice  of  employments,  varied  interests,  independence,  and 
honors  only  for  men. 

"  Arriving  in  New  York,  she  spent  some  time  with  a  mai- 
ried  sister,  trying  to  satisfy  the  unrest  of  her  nature  by  as- 
sisting in  the  family  sewing  and  the  care  of  the  children." 

Not  feeling  sufficiently  absorbed,  she  went  to  the  editor 
of  a  paper  and  applied  for  a  situation  as  reporter.  The  un- 
rest of  her  nature  would,  no  doubt,  have  been  effectually 
and  permanently  disposed  of  had  she  succeeded  in  becom- 
ing the  reporter  of  a  city  daily  newspaper.  But  its  proprie- 
tor laughed  at  the  idea,  and  she  went  home  and  wrote  a 
letter  about  it,  which  letter  so  pleased  another  editor  that 
he  published  it  forthwith.  Thereupon  she  continued  to 
write,  was  soon  put  in  a  responsible  position  upon  a  news- 
paper, and  shortly  after  was  offered  by  another  paper  double 
the  salary  she  had  at  first  received. 

Considering  now  that  this  woman,  according  to  her  biog- 
rapher, had  been  twice  engaged  to  be  married,  had  taken 
the  whole  charge  of  her  brother's  motherless  children,  had 


138  WomarCs  Worth 

assisted  in  the  family  sewing  and  the  care  of  her  sister's 
children,  became  a  writer  for  a  daily  newspaper,  was  mar 
ried,  and  kept  house,  and  made  shirts,  has  been  fashion-ed- 
itor of  two  magazines  and  editor  of  one,  has  for  years  fur- 
nished a  monthly  bulletin  of  fashion  for  some  twenty  news- 
papers throughout  the  country,  has  been  a  regular  contribu- 
tor to  one  review  and  to  one  weekly  journal,  an  occasional 
contributor  to  almost  every  prominent  paper  or  magazine 
that  has  been  published  in  New  York  for  the  last  ten  years, 
is  an  exemplary  mother,  occupies  several  important  ofBces, 
and  is  still  a  young  woman — how  are  we  to  construe  the 
statement  that  the  world  has 

I  St.  Choice  of  Employment, 

2d.  Varied  Interests, 

3d.  Independence  and  Honors 
only  for  men  ? 

In  what  Pickwickian  sense  are  we  to  understand  the  as- 
sertion that  for  single  women  there  is  no  place  in  the  uni- 
verse ?  How  many  men  have  chosen  a  greater  number  of 
employments,  or  have  had  more  and  more  varied  interests, 
than  this  still  young  woman  ? 

The  same  paper  tells  us  that  Miss  Blank  has  been  ap- 
pointed teacher  of  English  composition  at  Blank  College. 
Miss  Blank  is  a  graduate  of  a  certain  academy,  "  and  is  the 
young  lady  whose  remarkable  success  as  a  proof-reader  was 
mentioned,  etc.  At  the  Celebrated  Press  in  Utopia  she  se- 
cured the  highest  reputation  in  that  difficult  vocation.  On 
such  points  she  is  already  a  high  authority." 

Men  and  brethren,  especially  women,  do  you  not  see,  vote 
or  no  vote,  slave  or  free,  just  as  soon  as  a  woman  is  good 
for  any  thing,  every  body  wants  her?  Society  runs  wild 
after  an  able  woman,  and  seems  sometimes  to  think  that 
because  she  is  good  for  one  thing  she  is  good  for  any  and 
every  thing.     As  soon  as  she  shows  that  she  can  turn  her 


and  Woi'thlessness.  139 

hand  featly  to  one  act,  scores  of  hands  reach  out  to  clutch 
her.  Why  did  not  the  college  let  Miss  B.  alone  if  she  was 
doing  well  at  the  press  ?  There  are  plenty  of  women  who 
would  have  snatched  at  the  professorship.  Because  she  was 
doing  well.  If  she  had  been  doing  ill,  they  would  have  let 
her  alone  severely  enough.  No  one  wants  the  person  whom 
no  one  else  wants.  It  is  true  the  world  over,  in  science,  and 
politics,  and  property,  as  well  as  in  religion :  To  him  that 
hath  shall  be  given,  and  from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be 
taken  away  even  that  which  he  seemeth  to  have.  It  sounds 
harsh,  spoken  of  human,  sensitive  beings,  but  it  is  as  inev- 
itable as  a  law  of  nature.  It  is  a  law  of  nature.  Man  can 
no  more  help  it  than  he  can  help  the  blowing  of  the  wind. 
To  him  that  hath  power  shall  be  given  power.  Ability  be- 
gets influence.  The  sagacity  that  acquires  wealth  increases 
wealth.  He  who  grasps  life  feebly,  he  who  hangs  on  to  his 
position  imploringly,  and  does  not  occupy  it  commandingly 
—  he  will  be  continually  jostled,  and  is  likely  to  be  dis- 
lodged. 

The  pursuit  and  the  profit  of  an  occupation  are  matters 
pertaining  to  the  individual  as  well  as  to  the  sex.  They  are 
affected  by  sex  in  that  women  have  not  been  trained  to  ag- 
gressive personal  effort  as  men  have  been,  and  therefore  do 
not  so  readily  determine  their  work.  They  have  not  been 
educated  to  believe  that  they  must  take  hold  of  something, 
and  therefore  they  do  not  so  easily  see  or  so  quickly  grasp 
what  offers.  But  there  are  multitudes  of  young  men  who 
ponder  over  their  future,  question  what  they  shall  do,  try 
what  they  do  not  like,  and  are  baffled,  repulsed,  and  reject- 
ed. There  are  scores  who  do  not  know  precisely  what  they 
want  to  do,  and  would  embrace  any  one  of  a  dozen  differ- 
ent offers.  No  doubt  many  of  them  walk  up  and  down  in 
agony,  think  there  is  no  place  for  them  in  the  universe,  and 
try  to  satisfy  the  unrest  of  their  souls  in  dry-goods  stores. 


140  Woma?i's  Worth 

But  they  mostly  settle  after  a  while  into  some  sort  of  a  nookj 
and  make  the  best  of  it.  A  woman  can  do  precisely  the 
same  thing.  Why  not  ?  The  woman  whom  I  have,  men- 
tioned did  it,  only  better.  She  refused  to  content  herself 
with  what  did  not  satisfy  her,  and  kept  on  until  she  found 
something  that  did  ;  and  she  found,  also,  that  so  many  voi- 
ces called  her  that  it  was  hard  to  choose  which  she  should 
obey. 

These  are  but  illustrations  of  a  fact  which  can  not  be  too 
often  or  too  impressively  repeated,  that  in  this  country  a 
woman  need  no  more  be  without  occupation  than  a  man. 
She  need  not  be  without  healthy  and  remunerative  occupa- 
tion. In  the  higher  latitudes  her  pay  is  equal  to  that  of  a 
man.  In  many  latitudes,  if  she  has  a  man's  sense,  she  gets 
a  man's  emolument.  Trade  makes  little  inquiry  concerning 
success.  If  a  shop-girl  receives  less  wages  than  a  shop-boy, 
why  does  she  not  go  into  business  herself.^  I  suppose  a 
large  proportion  of  our  rich  merchants  walked  into  town 
with  the  traditional  shilling  in  their  pockets.  There  are 
women  also  who  have  succeeded  brilliantly  in  trade.  The 
largest,  most  popular,  and  most  successful  dry-goods  store 
in  a  certain  American  city  was  founded  and  is  owned  and 
managed  by  women.  They  make  no  fuss  about  it.  They 
are  not  bartering  on  high  moral  ground  ;  they  are  not  in 
the  papers  with  plans  and  projects,  and  I  fear  they  give 
very  little  thought  to  the  starving  women  of  New  York. 
They  simply  buy  and  sell,  and  get  gain,  and  invest  in  real 
estate.  I  suspect  they  are  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage,  but 
their  actions  speak  very  loudly  in  showing  how  well  women 
may  prosper  without  it. 

What  does  a  man  do  when  his  pay  is  not  enough  ?  If  he 
is  a  commonplace  man,  one  of  a  multitude,  he  joins  a  strike, 
which  he  has  a  perfect  right  to  do.  If  he  is  an  ignorant 
man,  with  crude  notions  of  liberty  and  t}Tanny,  of  right  and 


and  Worthlessness.  141 

wrong,  he  not  only  strikes  work  himself,  but  attempts  by 
force  to  prevent  his  neighbor  from  working,  and  thus  makes 
himself  a  criminal  and  dangerous  to  society.  But  if  he  is  a 
man  of  mettle  he  only  works  the  harder,  and  makes  himself 
so  necessary  to  his  employer  that  he  becomes  master  of  the 
situation.  When  a  man  gets  the  service  that  he  wants,  a 
few  dollars  more  or  less  are  a  trivial  matter  to  him.  It  is 
exactly  so  with  a  woman.  What  mother  of  a  household 
would  hesitate  between  two  dollars  and  a  half  to  an  ordinary 
housemaid,  and  three  dollars  to  one  who  would  do  the  work 
as  she  wants  it  done  ?  What  young  lady  would  hesitate  be- 
tween paying  ten  dollars  for  an  ill-fitting  dress,  and  fifteen 
for  a  well-fitting  one  ? 

I  am  informed  that  a  first-class  workwoman  even  in  New 
York  earns  fifteen  dollars  a  week  at  a  sewing  machine.  It 
is  not  wealth  ;  but  many  a  man  who  has  spent  thousands  of 
dollars  on  his  apprenticeship  earns  less  than  that  in  the  pul- 
pit. I  know  a  forewoman  in  a  sewing  establishment  who 
has  a  salary  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year,  and  I  know  a 
township  in  which  not  five  men  have  seen  a  yearly  income 
of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  in  all  their  lives. 

Why  do  not  sewing-women  establish  sewing-houses,  and 
become  proprietors,  instead  of  being  at  the  mercy  of  brutal 
employers?  Suppose  a  hard-working  mother  of  a  family 
wants  to  buy  a  winter  outfit  of  under  and  outer  clothing  foi 
herself  and  three  little  girls,  plain  but  strong,  and  at  a  cost 
no  greater  than  if  she  bought  the  cloth  and  hired  the  dress- 
maker and  seamstress  to  make  them  at  home.  How  many 
houses  are  there  to  which  she  could  go  ?  Men  do  this  every 
where.  The  making  of  male  apparel  has  passed  almost  en- 
tirely out  of  the  family  hands  into  those  of  the  shopmen  ; 
but  women  have  scarcely  begun  to  organize  their  supplies. 
Every  woman  has  to  go  through  the  process  for  herself,  and 
with  as  much  proportional  disadvantage  as  if  she  should 


142  IVoman^s  Worth 

shear  her  own  sheep  and  weave  her  own  cloth.  But  women 
can  estabUsh  sewing-shops.  Why  talk  of  disability,  when 
you  see  a  woman  begip  on  nothing,  make  bonnets,  gradual- 
ly but  steadily  enlarge  her  borders,  open  a  fancy  store,  en- 
gage apprentices,  rebuild  her  house,  open  a  boarding-house, 
make  her  own  purchases,  superintend  her  business,  send  her 
sons  to  college  and  her  daughters  to  academies,  maintain 
vigorous  health,  and  entertain  decided  convictions  as  to  the 
cause  and  consequences  of  the  French  and  Prussian  War  1 

Women  are  employed  in  telegraph  offices,  and  receive 
fifteen  and  twenty  dollars  a  week.  It  is  said  that  they  un- 
derstand the  details  as  well  as  men,  that  they  manipulate 
more  deftly,  and  are  more  faithful  at  their  posts.  I  do  not 
know  the  wages  of  male  operators  ;  but,  if  the  female  oper- 
ators surpass  them  in  skill  and  service,  they  are  in  the  right 
way  to  win  not  only  their  own  case,  but  the  case  of  all  wom- 
en. Every  won^an  who  legitimately  succeeds  in  a  legitimate 
business  helps  all  women.  And  when  I  go  to  one  telegraph 
office  ten  minutes  after  the  hour  of  opening,  and  find  it 
closed  ;  and  to  another,  and  find  a  woman  crusty,  indiffer- 
ent, and  negligent,  treating  me  as  if  it  were  a  favor  to  per- 
mit me  the  use  of  the  telegraph,  my  annoyance  is  not  con- 
fined to  my  personal  inconvenience,  but  I  think  how  surely 
these  women  are  creating  a  prejudice  against  all  other 
women. 

Here  is  a  girl  who  happened  not  to  be  born  poor.  Her 
father  is  rich  enough  to  live  in  Fifth  Avenue,  but  he  does 
not  live  there.  He  gives  her  all  the  advantages  of  city  ed- 
ucation which  she  chooses.  Eight  months  in  the  year  she 
spends  in  home  duties,  charities,  parties,  concerts,  operas, 
theatre,  her  own  music,  and  the  like  ;  but  in  the  other  four 
months  she  lives  her  own  true  life.  She  has  found  a  pure 
country  town,  undiscovered  yet  by  the  tourists,  and  there 
she  goes,  with  a  bloomer  dress,  and  lives  on  a  farm  and 


and  Worthlcssness.  143 

works  like  a  farm-hand — up  in  the  morning  with  the  men 
helping  take  care  of  the  animals,  then  to  the  fields  to  work 
with  them,  driving  the  oxen  and  pitching  the  hay.  She  has 
a  very  definite  idea  of  perfect  earthly  happiness.  It  is  to 
raise  animals  on  a  stock-farm  ;  and,  if  she  were  thrown  on 
her  own  resources,  no  doubt  she  would  do  it.  No  starving 
over  the  needle  or  stooping  behind  the  counter  for  her. 
And  yet  she  is  no  Amazon,  but  a  pure,  womanly  girl,  with- 
out a  grain  of  coarseness,  a  true  lover  of  nature. 

I  know  two  girls  born  to  ease  and  wealth.  In  their  early 
youth  they  were  rich,  careless,  free.  They  walked,  and  drove, 
and  rode,  and  hunted,  and  boated,  and  drank  great  draughts 
of  happiness  and  health.  Presently  trouble  came.  Affairs 
were  involved.  The  stalwart  father  became  a  confirmed 
and  helpless  invalid.  Did  they  sit  down  and  wring  their 
hands .''  Did  they  go  moaning  all  their  days,  begging  men 
to  give  them  a  little  sewing,  a  little  copying,  a  little  teach- 
ing? Not  they.  They  began,  in  a  small  way,  in  a  country 
town,  to  keep  a  "  dry -goods  and  grocery  store."  They  M^ere 
prompt.  They  gave  fair  measure  and  right  change.  They 
kept  what  people  wanted ;  and  if  any  thing  was  called  for 
which  they  had  not,  they  put  it  down  on  their  list  of  future 
purchases.  They  had  the  cleanest  and  nicest  grocery  for 
miles  around.  They  hired  a  clerk,  and  bought  a  horse,  and 
built  a  house,  and  are  at  this  moment  independent  property- 
holders,  as  well  as  piquant  and  agreeable  women. 

The  newspapers  tell  us  that  the  head  of  one  of  the  larger 
New  York  tea-dealing  firms  is  a  woman.  Previous  to  the 
outbreak  of  our  Civil  War  she  was  extensively  engaged  in 
utihzing(?)  the  leaves  of  the  great  blackberry  and  raspberry 
crops  of  Georgia  and  Alabama.  By  a  generous  and  judi- 
cious admixture  of  imported  tea,  these  blackberry  leaves 
were  worked  up  into  all  the  proper  varieties  of  the  black 
and  green  teas  of  commerce.     After  the  war  had  turned  her 


144  Woman's  Worth 

f'.eld  of  fortune  into  the  field  of  battle,  her  basis  of  opera- 
tions was  changed,  and  the  costly  green  teas  were  manipu- 
lated from  the  less  costly  black  teas  ;  but  there  is  no  record 
that  her  trickery  was  any  less  genuine,  skillful,  or  lucrative 
than  that  of  men. 

Through  the  same  newspapers  we  learn  of  another  wom- 
an who,  after  her  husband's  death,  took  sole  charge  of  his 
business.  A  grist-mill,  a  saw-mill,  six  hundred  acres  of  land 
m  homestead,  besides  other  tracts,  and  four  daughters,  came 
under  her  single  supervision.  She  accepted  the  trust,  ac- 
complished the  work,  and  conducted  every  thing  to  success 
and  prosperity. 

The  appointment  of  a  woman  to  the  post-office  of  a  South- 
ern city  was  hailed  by  the  newspapers  of  that  city  with  exe- 
cration. She  wisely  let  the  newspapers  alone,  and  expend- 
ed all  her  energies  on  the  post-office.  She  introduced  need- 
ed reforms,  so  far  as  possible,  and  paved  the  way  for  those 
which  could  not  be  immediately  effected.  She  was  prompt, 
polite,  faithful,  and  the  papers  that  reviled  her  were  forced 
to  admit  her  excellence. 

Even  the  schools,  to  which  the  young  women  flock,  are 
not  made  of  cast-iron.  I  have  known  a  young  woman  so 
highly  valued  that  the  committee  of  the  school,  having  al- 
ready raised  her  salary  to  the  highest  legal  standard,  offered 
her  a  third  more  out  of  their  own  pockets  to  secure  her  con- 
tinued stay,  and  offered  in  vain.  The  rush  to  the  schools  is 
so  great  that  the  pay  is  permanently  and  generally  low,  yet 
a  good  teacher  is  hard  to  find.  Sixty  and  a  hundred  teach- 
ers apply  for  a  single  situation  in  a  single  school,  yet  in  that 
same  school  the  principal  says  despairingly  to  the  parents, 
who  all  want  their  children  in  Miss  A.'s  class,  that  he  would 
have  Miss  A.  cut  up  into  twenty  pieces  if  he  could,  so  that 
she  might  teach  them  all.  In  the  heart  of  New  England, 
in  a  highly  cultivated  communit}'j  an  attempt  was  made  ft/ 


and  Worthlessness.  145 

substitute  female  for  male  principals  in  the  higher  grades 
of  schools.  A  salary  was  proposed  nearly,  if  not  quite  as 
large  as  the  average  salary  of  the  clergymen  in  the  vicini- 
ty ;  and  the  committee,  who  had  been  for  years  conversant 
and  connected  with  schools,  knew  of  only  one  woman  within 
a  radius  of  thirty  miles  whom  they  were  willing  to  intrust 
with  the  experiment.  I  have  heard  a  woman  complaining 
of  injustice,  of  the  partiality  shown  to  men,  and  affirming 
that  she  could  not  live  on  her  salary,  when  that  salary  was 
four  hundred  dollars  a  year,  when  she  had  received  only 
the  most  slight  and  common  instruction  from  the  most  com- 
mon schools — an  experience  that  could  in  no  sense  of  the 
word  be  called  education — and  had  attained  a  culture  suffi- 
ciently indicated  by  the  fact  that  she  found  offense  in  being 
spoken  of  as  a  female  teacher  instead  of  a  lady  teacher ! 
Now  I  admit  that  it  is  very  exasperating  to  have  a  man  in 
the  next  room,  no  better,  and  no  better  educated  than  you, 
doing  the  same  work  that  you  do,  and  getting  twice  as  much 
pay.  It  is  still  more  exasperating  to  have  him  set  over  you, 
and  getting  three  times  as  much  pay.  But  where  there  is  a 
glaring  discrepancy  not  only  between  a  woman's  work  and 
her  wages,  but  between  her  duties  and  her  fitness  to  per- 
form them,  it  would  be  encouraging  to  see  her  efforts  not 
wholly  confined  to  the  former ;  but  I  have  heard  her  speak 
ten  words  for  increase  of  pay  where  I  have  heard  one  for 
improvement  in  performance.  Men  may  be  no  better  than 
women,  but  women  are  not  half  as  good  as  they  ought  to  be. 
When  you  have  secured  to  uneducated  female  teachers  the 
same  salary  which  uneducated  male  teachers  receive,  when 
you  have  paid  for  a  woman's  shabby  work  the  same  wages 
which  you  pay  for  a  man's  shabby  work,  have  you  really  ele- 
vated society  ?  You  have,  indeed,  brought  about  an  equali- 
ty, but  it  has  not  been  by  a  leveling-up  process. 

Poor  work  is  the  fatal  disability,  not  poor  pay.     Good 
G 


146  Woman^s  Worth 

work  may  be  a  slow,  but  it  is  a  sovereign  remedy.  Yet 
women  will  not  administer  it.  They  have  not  the  ingenuity 
to  devise,  the  courage  to  commence,  the  perseverance  to 
carry  out  responsible  undertakings.  They  have  not  the  pa- 
tience, the  sense,  the  wisdom  to  work  faithfully  under  some 
other  person's  responsibility.  It  is  easier  for  them  to  moil 
on  in  the  old  ruts,  to  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  to  be  serfs  to 
heartless  employers,  to  complain  of  partiality,  and  cry  out 
against  injustice,  than  it  is  to  strike  silently  into  untried 
paths,  to  bend  circumstances,  and  defy  injustice,  and  com- 
pel respect,  and  control  fate. 

All,  alike  the  advocates  and  opponents  of  woman  suffrage, 
agree  that  the  avenues  of  employment  should  be  open  to 
women;  but  if  women  have  not  the  ability  to  open  them  for 
themselves,  have  they  the  ability  to  walk  in  them  after  they 
are  opened  ?  The  barriers  are  such  that  her  feet  can  not 
pass  beyond  them  whose  hand  can  not  remove  them.  Stu- 
pid men  plod,  and  bright  men  invent.  They  make  a  busi- 
ness. They  devise  a  supply,  and  create  a  demand.  Wom- 
en can  do  the  same,  if  they  have  the  head  for  it.  If  they 
have  not,  perhaps  the  next  best  thing  is  to  pass  a  law  that 
bead  shall  be  counted  out  in  the  general  judgment. 

It  is  not  so  much  opportunity  that  women  need  as  quali- 
-  i^s.  They  do  not  succeed  in  business  for  the  same  reason 
that  men  do  not  succeed — because  they  are  timid,  tame,  un« 
adventurous,  ineffective.  They  have  not  energy,  enterprise, 
persistence,  spirit,  daring.  They  are  not  far-seeing,  ready  in 
plan,  fertile  in  resources.  Nothing  else  fails  them  for  suc- 
cess. It  is  not  that  they  are  poor,  for  the  ranks  of  our  "  mer- 
chant princes"  are  replenished  from  just  such  poverty  as 
theirs.  It  is  not  political  disability.  Men  with  political  abili- 
ty have  failed  in  just  such  careers,  and  women  with  political 
disability  have  succeeded.  If  this  day  men  and  women 
should  change  places — the  successful  men  and  the  unsuc- 


and  Worthies sness.  147 

cessful  women — I  doubt  not  that  in  five  years  every  thing 
would  be  just  as  it  is  now.  The  thirty  thousand  starving  wom- 
en would  have  gone  into  the  stores  and  offices  ;  would  have 
lived  comfortably,  dressed  tastefully,  never  have  acquired  a 
half  understandmg  of  their  business,  nor  a  whole  understand- 
ing of  what  understanding  business  means,  until  the  whole 
thing  had  slipped  through  their  hands.  The  thirty  thousand 
men  who  had  taken  their  places  would  at  the  start  have 
looked  around  them,  seized  the  first  opening  for  making 
money,  or  made  an  opening  if  none  appeared,  thrown  away 
the  needle,  combined  forces,  and  in  five  years  be  bullying 
the  poor  sowing-women  just  the  same  as  ever.  And  the 
poor  sewing  women  would  stand  and  take  it  just  as  meekly 
as  ever. 

"This  gully  must  be  filled  by  Saturday  night,"  said  the 
overseer  on  thv^;  Pacific  Railroad. 

"  Impossible/'  was  the  reply.  "  There  is  nothing  to  fill  it 
with." 

"  It  must  be  filled  with  five  thousand  Irishmen,  if  there 
is  nothing  else  ;  and  it  must  be  filled  by  Saturday  night." 

And  it  was  filled. 

"  This  river  must  be  bridged,"  said  the  general,  on  his 
march  to  the  sea. 

"There  is  not  wood  enough  in  the  village  to  build  a 
bridge,"  replied  his  officer. 

"Take  the  village!" 

The  bridge  was  built. 

This  is  what  all  need  for  success,  will — will  that  takes  no 
account  of  obstacles  except  to  overcome  them.  What  is 
the  use  of  talking  to  women  about  wider  opportunities,  when 
opportunities  are  dying  every  day  for  want  of  being  used  ? 
What  is  the  use  uf  lamenting  lack  of  employments,  when 
women  are  still  feebly  fumbling  around  in  a  jungle  of  em- 
ployments ?     Why  talk  about  poor  pay,  v/hen  it  is  almost  by 


148  Woman^s  Worth 

sufferance  that  women  get  any  pay  at  all  ?  Women  in  trade 
are  nothing  but  men.  If  they  are  weak,  helpless,  complain- 
ing men,  we  may  as  well  acknowledge  the  fact ;  but,  weak 
or  strong,  they  are  men,  and  must  be  dealt  with  as  men. 

I  have  two  letters,  received  at  the  same  time,  and  written 
on  the  same  subject,  which  so  unconsciously  but  so  admira- 
bly illustrate  the  difference  between  the  masculine  and  the 
feminine  treatment  of  a  question,  and  which  also  throw  so 
much  light,  indirectly,  upon  our  theme,  that  I  propose  to 
make  some  extracts  from  each.  The  first  is  a  woman's  let- 
ter, the  second  a  man's.  With  both  I  take  private  liberties 
in  respect  of  spelling,  punctuation,  and  superfluities,  but  I 
add  nothing. 

"  I  am  well  aware  that  any  work  properly  done  will  com- 
mand a  living  price  paid  to  any  woman,  and  that  an  unskill- 
ed worker  who  sends  out  poor  work  must  not  expect  first- 
class  prices.  But  that  is  not  (in  my  mind)  the  point  which 
women  argue.  It  is  not  that  other  women  can  command 
higher  prices.  It  is  the  universal  partiality  shown  to  men. 
The  cry  of  the  working-women  of  the  land  is, '  I  can  do  a 
man's  work,  and  I  ought  to  be  paid  a  man's  salary.'  Yes, 
they  ought  to  be  ;  but  are  not  mankind  agreed  that  women 
are  the  best  ones  to  instruct  the  young?  If  i^o,  then  why 
do  not  men  (for  they  make  and  always  have  made  the  laws) 
make  laws  to  protect  teachers  of  schools  1  Why  do  they 
lessen  the  salaries  of  lady  teachers  so  that  they  may  in- 
crease a  salary  of  some  man — the  man  having  refused  to  ac- 
cept the  salary  of  a  woman  ? 

"  It  has  been  argued  by  many  that  men  should  be  paid 
more  than  their  sisters,  for  the  reason  that  men  have  so 
many  expenses  to  bear  for  women. 

"  One  instance  is,  when  a  gentleman  takes  a  lady  to  ride 
with  him,  he  pays  for  the  horses,  refreshments,  etc.  The 
lady  has  nothing  to  do  with  that.  Why  should  she  ?  The 
gentleman  took  her  for  his  own  pleasure  quite  as  much  as 
he  did  for  hers.  If  the  lady  happened  to  be  one  who  earn- 
ed her  own  living,  she  would  willingly  pay  the  man,  if  he 
wished  it.     If  it  happened^  I  say.     You  know  that  we  who 


and  Worthkssness.  149 

depend  upon  our  own  exertions  for  support  are  not  very 
often  invited  to  ride,  eat  ices,  etc.,  by  gentlemen  of  society. 
Ah !  no.  They  reserve  their  invitations  for  the  butterflies 
of  society.  But  we  do  not  ask  to  have  it  otherwise.  Every- 
day toil  unfits  one  for  the  frivolities  of  fashion. 

"  If  women  who  are  at  ease  do  not  believe  that  the  host 
of  noble  women  suffer  who  support  themselves,  just  let  them 
try  it,  and  see  your  former  friends  turn  their  backs  upon 
you.     Then,  and  not  till  then,  will  you  know. 

=^  *  #  #  *  * 

"  Don't  you  expect  as  much  pay  for  your  MS.  as  any  man 
would  for  the  same  amount  of  labor?  Don't  your  paper, 
pens,  ink,  and  board  cost  as  much  as  if  you  were  a  man  ? 
Are  you  willing  to  work  for  less .'' 

"Let  us,  then,  join  hand  in  hand,  and  stand  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  and  try  to  elevate  our  less  fortunate  sisters,"  etc. 

Now  for  the  man's  letter  : 

"  I  have  always  supposed,  and  still  think,  that  if  there  is  a 
demand  or  a  market  for  any  thing,  and  there  is  money  in  it, 
that  demand  is  sure  to  be  met,  that  market  supplied.  Now, 
in  your  article,  you  give  us  to  understand  that  there  is  a 
great  demand  for  skilled  workers,  and  advise  poor  working- 
women  to  become  skillful  in  some  trade,  and  then  they  are 
sure  to  do  well.  This,  I  think,  is  not  so.  There  is  no  de- 
mand for  skilled  workers  ;  and  if  j^ou  look  carefully  among 
the  various  mechanical  trades  in  our  midst,  you  will  find  it 
the  almost  invariable  rule,  the  better  the  workman  the  poor- 
er the  man.  Take  my  own  business,  for  example — Gas- 
piping.     I  can  find  you  in  the  city  of lots  of  first-rate 

workmen.  They  are  all  of  them  poor ;  and  I  can't  call  to 
mind  a  single  man  that  has  got  rich  in  the  business  (and  I 
know  many  that  have)  that  can  pipe  a  house  decently.  Why, 
the  man  that  has  done  the  best  business  in  the  city  the  last 
ten  years  in  gas-fixtures  never  made  one  that  I  would  take 
for  a  gift  to  put  in  my  house.  I  have  worked  at  the  busi- 
ness ten  years,  and  am  accounted  a  skillful  workman.  Can 
I  get  a  cent  a  foot  more  for  piping  than  the  veriest  botch  ? 
Not  at  all.  In  fact,  he  rather  has  the  advantage  of  me,  for 
most  people  seem  to  think  poor  work  is  the  cheapest,  any- 


150  Woman's  Worth 

how.     At  any  rate,  they  won't  pay  any  more  for  good  work. 

"The  true  idea,  it  seems  to  me,  is  not  to  know  how  to 
work  well,  but  how  to  buy  and  sell  well ;  and  the  man  or 
woman  who  knows  how  to  dispose  of  their  wares  in  the  mar- 
ket is  sure  to  get  rich.  There  are  many  notable  examples 
of  this.  I  will  give  you  one  or  two.  There  is  Mr.  A.,  one 
of  the  governor's  council  now,  I  believe.  Well,  he  has  got 
rich  at  the  carpenter's  trade.  He  knows  just  about  as  much 
how  to  do  a  job  of  carpentering  as  an  old  setting  hen  ;  but 
he  knows  how  to  hire  men  that  do  know  how  to  work,  and 
he  knows  how  to  manipulate  boards  of  aldermen  and  com- 
mon council  so  as  to  get  fat  contracts,  in  which  he  so  man- 
ages that  the  bill  for  extras  will  be  larger  than  the  original 
contracts.  He  knows  how  to  carry  his  wares  to  market,  and 
he  is  made  president  of  this,  that,  and  the  other ;  and  Mr. 
B.  C,  in  that  wonderful  production  of  his,  the  oration  at  the 
last  annual  dinner,  points  to  him  with  pride  as  an  example 
of  what  mechanics  can  accomplish.  That  oration,  by  the 
way,  was  a  big  thing.  In  it  he  spoke  of  the  readiness  of 
weakhy  people  to  help  mechanics.  That's  so.  Help  them 
get  rid  of  their  money.  .  .  . 

"That  is  the  reason  why  boys  shun  mechanical  trades. 
We  read  long  homilies  in  the  papers  on  the  advantages  of 
having  a  trade,  but  both  parents  and  children  instinctively 
know  better.  They  see  that  the  great  prizes  of  life  don't  lie 
in  that  direction.     The  great  traders  rule  the  world. 

"...  To  sum  up,  the  world  don't  want  skilled  work ;  it 
wants  cheap  work.  The  creators  of  wealth  don't  get  any  of 
it.     Those  that  trade  in  that  wealth  are  the  favored  ones." 

Leaving  out  of  sight  the  question  of  correctness,  who  does 
not  see  that  the  woman's  letter  is  sentimental,  the  man's 
letter  brawny  ?  The  one  is  piteous,  wavering,  longing,  feeble, 
the  other  is  sturdy,  bitter,  scornful,  and  direct.  The  one  ad- 
mits every  thing,  and  wanders  off  into  side  issues  and  devas- 
tated ways  ;  the  other  plumps  down  upon  facts  at  the  out- 
set, and  denies  them. 

"Why  is  the  woman's  salary  lessened  that  the  man's  may 
be  increased,''  asks  the  woman — "  the  man  having  refused 


and  VVorthkssness.  151 

to  accept  the  woman's  salary?" — and  does  not  see  that  one 
breath  asks  and  answers  the  question  ?  It  is  because  men 
refuse  a  woman's  salary  that  they  get  men's  salary.  It  is 
because  women  accept  a  low  salary  that  they  do  not  get  a 
high  one.  The  world  will  never  pay  any  more  for  work 
than  it  is  obliged  to  pay.  This  never  looks  so  wrong  as  in 
schools,  and  I  do  not  say  that  there  is  no  injustice  in  it. 
But  I  do  say  that  the  remedy  is  not  in  expostulation,  but  in 
action.  If  a  woman  writer  gets  the  same  pay  as  a  man,  it 
is  not  because  she  reasons  with  her  publisher  about  her 
board  bill  and  stationery,  but  because,  if  his  price  does  not 
suit  her,  she  takes  her  wares  to  the  publisher  over  the  way. 
Unless  she  can  do  this,  and  until  she  can  do  this,  she  is  in 
precisely  the  condition  of  the  teacher  and  the  seamstress — 
she  must  take  what  is  offered.  Against  this  horrible  neces- 
sity no  law  can  be  framed  to  protect  her. 

And  is  it  not  just  the  least  in  the  world  grotesque  for  a 
working-woman  to  face  the  great  questions  of  equality  and 
relations  with  an  argument  built  on  ice-cream  ?  The  op- 
pressed and  downtrodden,  the  noble,  suffering,  self-support- 
ing host  sends  up  a  bitter  cry,  one  of  whose  component 
parts  is  a  well-defined  wail  that  gentlemen  do  not  take  them 
to  ride  !  Surely  there  ought  to  be  a  law  passed  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  bees  against  the  butterflies ;  and  as  men 
make  and  always  have  made  the  laws,  and  as  the  same  men 
take  and  always  have  taken  the  butterflies  to  ride,  it  is  use- 
less to  hope  for  any  reform  or  "  refreshments"  until  the  bees 
have  a  seat  in  council.  Women  have  heavier  burdens  than 
these,  but  it  will  be  hard  to  make  the  world  believe  it  so 
long  as  they  bring  these  forward  as  burdens. 

One  may  be  pardoned  for  thinking  that  the  women  who 
earn  their  own  living  find,  at  least,  a  moderate  degree  of 
compensation  in  contemning  the  women  who  do  not.  The 
former  are  "a  host  of  noble  women,"  the  latter   are  the 


152  Woman's  Worth 

"  frivolities  of  fashion ;"  but  why  it  is  not  arrogant  and 
pharisaic  for  a  woman  to  class  herself  among  the  nobility 
because  she  is  poor,  and  her  "  sister"  among  the  ignobility 
because  she  is  rich,  I  fail  to  see.  If  a  woman  has  no  one 
to  provide  for  her,  she  must  provide  for  herself  It  would 
be  ignoble  for  her,  in  sound  health,  to  go  to  the  poor-house  ; 
but  is  there  any  thing  especially  noble  in  staying  out  of  it  ? 
Is  independence  inherently  any  niore  glorious  than  depend- 
ence ?  Both  have  ample  room  for  excellence,  but  both  are 
in  themselves  neutral.  It  indicates  no  more  merit  in  a 
woman  that  her  husband  has  died,  and  left  her  to  support 
as  well  as  train  her  children,  than  if  he  had  lived  and  sup- 
ported them  himself.  She  may  be  noble  in  doing  it,  but  an- 
other woman,  who  never  earned  a  penny  in  her  life,  may  be 
just  as  noble.  Literature  has  always  been  rather  hard  on 
butterflies,  but  I  do  not  know  where  we  find  our  warrant  for 
supposing  the  butterfly  any  less  perfect  or  pleasing  in  the 
eyes  of  its  Maker  than  the  bee. 

We  speak  of  the  dignity  of  labor,  but  labor  has  no  dig- 
nity. Dignity  is  in  the  workman,  not  in  the  work ;  in  the 
motive  and  attitude,  not  in  the  task. 

Circumstances  are  but  the  frame -work  of  character. 
Sweetness,  modesty,  dignity,  charity,  self-respect,  and  re- 
spect for  others,  are  personal  graces  among  rich  or  poor. 
No  life  is  lovely  without  them  ;  no  life  is  mean  with  them. 

The  man's  letter  does  not  make  out  the  man's  case ;  but 
what  a  ring  it  has.  The  world, he  says,  does  not  want  skilled 
labor ;  but  does  not  gas-piping — which  requires  skill — pay 
better  than  hod-carrying,  which  does  not  ?  The  poor  gas- 
pipers  get  rich,  but  is  it  not  by  making  people  believe  that 
their  work  is  good  ?  The  old  setting-hen  of  a  carpenter 
does  not  thus  characterize  himself  to  his  customers,  I  sup- 
pose. He  is  not  skilled  in  carpentry,  but  he  is  an  adept 
in  the  still  more  skillful  labor  of  palming  off  good  work  for 


and  Worthies sness.  153 

poor.  All  I  design  to  do,  however,  is  merely  to  call  atten- 
tion to  the  different  way  in  which  the  man  and  the  woman 
take  hold  of  the  same  question.  The  woman  must  have 
more  of  the  nerve  and  muscle  of  the  man,  must  talk  less 
of  shoulders  and  sisters,  and  think  less  of  ices  and  gentle- 
men, before  her  fingers  will  have  grasp,  her  protest  power. 

G2 


154  Woman's  Worth 


VIII. 

SERFDOM. 

Are  women  to  be  blamed  for  their  inaptitude  ?  Only 
partially,  at  most  One  trouble  is  that  they  are  where  they 
do  not  belong.  They  can  not  see  where  business  lies,  be- 
cause they  were  not  born  with  business  eyes.  The  few 
women  succeed.  They  have  an  exceptional  fondness  and 
fitness  for  traffic,  and  they  buy,  and  sell,  and  get  gain  as 
readily  as  men,  and  do  not  necessarily  lose  any  grace  for 
their  worldly  wisdom  ;  but  women  in  general  have  not  ca- 
pacity for  business.  It  hurts  them  ;  it  annoys  them.  They 
are  ill  at  ease.  They  instinctively  make  every  thing  a  mat- 
ter of  feeling.  They  constantly,  if  unconsciously,  refer  every 
thing  to  the  standard  of  chivalry.  They  think  trade  ought 
to  take  off  its  hat  as  deferentially  as  courtesy.  They  are 
worn  out  doubly  by  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  struggle,  and 
by  the  unnaturalness  of  such  wear  and  tear.  What  says 
Miss  Mitford  —  that  brave  and  blameless  lady,  who  upbore 
out  of  the  ruin  of  the  home  which  himself  had  wantonly 
destroyed  a  worthless  and  wicked  father?  "Women  were 
not  meant  to  earn  the  bread  of  a  family.  I  am  sure  of  that ; 
there  is  a  want  of  strength."  No  one  has  gained  a  better 
right  than  she  to  speak  authoritatively  on  this  point ;  and, 
remembering  her  long  suffering,  and  the  years  of  anxiety 
and  anguish  that  followed  the  brilliant  promise  of  her  open- 
ing life,  one  restrains  his  inclination  to  cuff  her  when  she 
says,  "  I  write  merely  for  remuneration  ;  and  I  would  rather 
scrub  floors  if  I  could  get  as  much  by  that  healthier,  more 
respectable,  and  more  feminine  employment." 

(But  there  must  have  been  some  defect  in  a  woman  who 


and  Worthkssness.  155 

could  pay  court  to  such  a  man  as  Dr.  Mitford.  A  daughter 
must  honor  her  father,  whatever  be  his  character.  She  must 
do  her  filial  duty,  however  gross,  selfish,  and  ungrateful  he 
be ;  but  to  give  to  such  a  man  the  homage  of  her  heart 
makes  heart's  homage  of  little  worth.) 

All  that  can  be  done  for  women  is  to  help  them  do  as 
well  as  possible  what  they  never  can  do  well,  but  what  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  they  should  do  somehow.  It  is  im- 
probable that  women  will  ever  become,  to  any  large  extent, 
tillers  of  the  soil ;  but  the  Horticultural  School  established 
in  Boston  most  wisely  offers  to  them  an  opportunity  for 
thorough  education  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  horticul- 
ture. It  aims  to  choose  that  part  of  agriculture  most  suited 
to  women,  and  to  substitute  trained,  skillful,  well-directed 
labor  for  untrained,  clumsy,  and  spasmodic  effort.  We  may 
admit  that  women  can  never  equal  men  in  trade,  or  com- 
merce, or  industry ;  but,  because  many  women  are  born  to 
self-support,  and  because  all  women  may  be  reduced  to  self 
support,  he  who  founds  a  college  to  teach  women  the  vari- 
ous branches  of  science,  art,  and  industry  confers  a  real  ben- 
efit. A  woman  thoroughly  trained  to  the  occupation  of 
type-setting  or  hair-dressing  may  or  may  not  be  inferior  to 
the  thoroughly-trained  male  printer  or  barber,  but  she  has 
a  great  advantage  over  the  untrained  woman.  That  she  is 
less  deft  than  a  man  is  no  reason  why  she  should  not  be  as 
deft  as  a  woman  can  be  ;  and  I  fancy  her  best  is  far  beyond 
the  masculine  average.  So  the  objections  raised  to  these 
schemes — that  they  tend  to  take  women  away  from  their 
homes — is  not  only  futile,  but  fatuous.  Women  are  out  of 
their  homes  already.  It  is  not  a  question  whether  their  life 
shall  be  domestic,  or  mercantile  and  mechanical.  It  is 
whether  they  shall  be  intelligently  and  lucratively  mechan- 
ical, or  awkwardly,  unprofitably,  and  fatally  so.  Were  it 
otherwise,  did  the  choice  lie  between  self-support  and  man- 


156  Woman's  Worth 

support — coming,  of  course,  naturally,  and,  therefore,  honor- 
ably— there  would  be  but  one  answer.  And  here  is  where 
I  branch  off  from  the  woman's  rights  reform.  If  I  under- 
stand it,  the  leaders  teach  the  absolute  worth  and  desirable- 
ness of  manual  labor  to  woman.  They  say  (I  quote  from 
one  of  their  prominent  journals),  "Women  should  earn  their 
living.  This  is  the  first  spring  to  action.  Girls  should  be 
reared,  like  boys,  to  depend  upon  themselves  for  support. 
Self-support  ....  creates  a  self-respect  which  nothing  else 
can  confer.  No  true  happiness  is  found  in  dependence.  No 
true  life  is  consistent  with  it." 

Thus  it  puts  men  and  women  on  the  same  plane.  It 
counts  pecuniary  independence  equally  incumbent  on,  and 
pecuniary  dependence  equally  degrading  to,  both  sexes.  It 
demands  entrance  for  woman  into  all  departments  of  labor, 
not  as  the  remedy  of  an  evil,  but  as  the  fulfillment  of  a  mis- 
sion. I  do  not  know  how  strongly  enough  to  express  my 
dissent.  I  think  the  necessity  of  earning  her  own  living  is 
a  woman's  misfortune.  She  who  must  support  herself  in 
order  to  respect  herself  is  an  inferior  sort  of  woman.  In- 
deed, so  far  as  regards  any  conception  of  her  part  in  the 
economy  of  life,  she  is  no  woman  at  all.  Probably  her  in- 
stinct overbears  her  intellect,  and  she  is  nineteen  twentieths 
more  a  woman  than  she  would  make  herself  out  to  be,  but 
her  theory  is  wholly  defective,  and  grievously  below  the  real 
standard. 

Pecuniary  dependence,  degrading  to  men,  is  not  only  not 
undignified,  but  is  the  only  thoroughly  dignified  condition 
for  women.  In  a  renovated  and  millennial  society  all  wom- 
en will  be  supported  by  men — will  have  no  more  to  do  with 
bringing  in  money  than  the  lilies  of  the  field. 

It  is  the  misfortune  of  our  age  to  be  as  yet  far  removed 
from  that  day  ;  but  to  imagine  it,  and  then  call  it  degrading 
is  altogether  intolerable.     Says  a  woman's  paper ; 


and  Worthkssness.  157 

"  The  intervening  years  (between  girlhood  and  marriage) 
are  replete  with  dependence — conventional,  honorable,  but 
still  grinding  dependence  ;  chained  to  one  house,  to  one 
round  of  duties,  one  constant  claim  of  service.  If  claimed 
in  love,  it  is  well.  [This  seems  to  be  inconsistent  with  a 
subsequent  assertion.]  If  claimed  as  payment  for  benefit 
received,  it  is  a  fraud  upon  her  time,  her  thought,  and  pur- 
pose in  life.  With  no  will  save  her  father's,  and  no  benefits 
save  of  his  conferring,  and  no  privilege  save  of  his  indul- 
gence, she  and  her  mother  are  serfs — loving  and  beloved, 
petted  and  indulged,  caressed  and  flattered,  it  may  be,  but 
serfs  notwithstanding. 

"  When  the  girl  prefers  to  risk  all  and  help  herself,  desir- 
ing a  little  means  of  her  own  earning,  it  is  regarded  as  a  di- 
rect reproach  t^  her  father.  It  is  regarded  as  a  still  greater 
reproach  to  the  husband  when  the  wife  aims  at  self-depend- 
ence. '  Can't  that  man  support  his  wife  ?'  is  the  every- 
where-urged question." 

Surely  this  is  wild  writing.  An  artist  might  as  well  sketch 
the  outline  of  heaven  and  label  it  hell.  What  meaning  have 
words  to  the  mind  that  calls  a  "  loving  and  beloved,  petted 
and  indulged,  caressed  and  flattered"  wife  or  daughter  a 
serf?  The  cause  must  be  hard  pushed  for  grievance  which 
finds  such  a  state  of  things  a  grievance. 

And  the  remedy  is  as  grotesque  as  the  grief  is  imaginary: 

"  Suffrage  will  be  to  her  what  concealed  weapons  are  to 
the  traveler — a  provision  for  defense  which,  if  unused,  still 
secure  respect  and  an  unmolested  transit. 

"The  presence  of  three  or  four  citizens  in  the  house,  with 
a  citizen's  power  of  redress  and  a  citizen's  power  to  change 
poor  laws,  is  a  very  different  thing  from  the  presence  of  sev- 
eral abject,  timid,  dissatisfied  women,  whom  it  is  a  pleasure 
to  abuse  because  they  can't  help  themselves." 

To  me,  I  must  confess  all  this  seems  a  mere  travesty,  and 
a  ludicrous  travesty,  of  real  social  conditions.  We  will  ad- 
mit that,  technically,  legally,  the  husband  and  father  has  the 
right  of  eminent  domain.     He  is  a  citizen,  wife  and  daugh- 


158  Woman's  Worth 

ter  or  not.  Actually,  also,  if  he  is  a  wrong-headed  or  bad- 
hearted  man,  he  may  be  an  intolerable  tyrant.  There  are 
men  so  persistent  of  will,  so  feeble  or  twisted  in  intellect, 
that  never  so  superior  a  wife  can  only  nianage  them — can 
never  thoroughly  subdue  or  renew  them — Scanlans  who  con- 
quer by  their  very  weakness.  But  there  are  also  female 
Scanlans,  and  no  law  can  be  framed  to  touch  them.  Civil 
codes  may  reach  a  state  of  absolute  perfection,  doing  equal 
and  entire  justice  to  man  and  woman,  and  a  husband  will 
still  be  able  to  hector  his  wife  to  death,  and  the  wife  her 
husband  ;  and  as  between  the  two,  one  is  inclined  to  think 
she  does  it  best.  A  woman  has  rather  more  power  to  make 
a  home  steadily  and  unmitigatedly  uncomfortable  than  has 
a  man.  But  this  writer  is  not  speaking  of  petty  tyrants. 
He  expressly  depicts  a  husband  and  father,  able,  willing, 
and  longing  to  support  and  to  cherish ;  loving  and  express- 
ing love  in  all  love's  ways.  To  call  wifehood  to  such  a  man 
serfdom  is  to  denominate  at  random.  If  there  is  any  serf- 
dom about  it,  it  is  far  more  on  the  husband's  side  than  on 
the  wife's.  There  is  no  slavery-  so  abject  as  the  slavery  of 
a  man  to  the  woman  he  loves.  Abject,  for  it  goes  behind 
his  will  and  possesses  the  whole  man.  And  the  more  a 
man  he  is,  the  more  strong,  and  bright,  and  free,  the  more 
thorough  is  his  enthrallment.  Woe  to  such  a  one  if  he 
falls  into  the  hands  of  a  weak,  a  frivolous,  or  an  unworthy 
owner.  Joy  to  him  if  his  proprietor  be  a  large-natured 
woman,  for  then  his  completest  thrall  is  his  most  exalted 
and  divine  freedom. 

In  every  known  sense  of  the  word,  a  woman  owns  the  man 
who  loves  her  more  than  he  owns  her.  Her  love  is  perhaps 
as  great,  but  it  is  not  so  absorbing.  She  sees  the  situation, 
where  he  only  sees  her.  She  is  as  strong  as  all  his  strength, 
because  his  strength  is  hers.  With  whatever  of  power,  or 
wisdom,  or  renown  he  is  endowed,  she  also  becomes  pos- 


and  Worthlessness.  159 

sessed,  and  no  enlargement  of  his  borders  diminishes  one 
iota  of  his  dependence  upon  her  for  the  abihty  to  enjoy  them. 
If  there  is  any  difference,  the  supreme  control,  the  court  of 
last  resort,  is  hers. 

As  for  the  loving  and  beloved,  the  petted  and  caressed 
daughter,  the  case  is  even  harder  for  the  happy  father.  A 
beloved  wife  is  a  constitutional  monarch,  after  all,  but  a 
good  daughter  is  apt  to  be  an  absolute  despot.  Indeed,  she 
often  carries  things  with  so  high  a  hand  that  the  more  expe- 
rienced mother  and  less  captivated  wife  has  not  infrequent- 
ly to  interfere  to  mitigate  the  rigor  of  paternal  servitude. 
A  mother  will  often  wisely  discriminate  against  her  daugh- 
ter's wishes,  where  a  father  will  make  an  immediate  and  un- 
conditional surrender. 

"  Father,"  says  Susy  to  that  gentleman,  on  his  return  home 
after  some  weeks  of  absence,  "you  are  going  to  the  theatre 
to-night." 

"Why,  no,  Susy,  I  think  not.  I  never  was  at  a  theatre  in 
my  life." 

"  But  you  are  going  to-night.  Fanny  and  I  mean  to  take 
you.  I  have  bought  the  tickets.  Your  education  has  been 
too  long  neglected,  and  you  must  see  the  world." 

And,  so  sure  as  evening  comes,  the  respected  citizen  and 
Church-member  is  boldly  and  bodily  taken  possession  of  by 
the  saucy  chits,  and  marched  off  to  the  theatre — clanking 
his  chains,  it  must  be  confessed,  as  if  he  loved  them.  Lov- 
ing and  beloved,  petted  and  caressed,  indulged  and  flattered 
he  may  be,  but  the  veriest  serf  notwithstanding. 

"With  no  will  save  her  father's."  If  parents  were  called 
upon  for  evidence,  I  suspect  they  would  testify  to  a  different 
state  of  things.  It  must  be  a  humdrum  sort  of  family  of 
which  the  father  would  not  depose  and  say  that  there  are  as 
many  wills  in  it  as  there  are  daughters. 

"Qrinding  dependence."     The  girl  who  submits  to  such 


i6o  Womafi's  Worth 

a  thing  in  her  father's  house  is  an  inferior  girl,  and  the  con- 
stitutional amendment  that  is  to  avail  her  must  come  from 
heaven,  not  from  Congress.  The  world  is  all  before  her 
where  to  choose.  If  her  father  does  not  wish  her  to  be  de- 
pendent on  him,  or  if  he  taunts  her  with  her  dependence, 
she  can  leave  him  and  make  her  own  way  in  life ;  and  she 
always  should.  A  girl  who  will  stand  insult  from  any  quar- 
ter is  simply  mean-spirited.  If  she  would  rather  stay  at 
home  and  grind  than  strike  out  for  herself  and  grow,  how 
can  law  or  Gospel  help  it  ?  You  can  not  put  pluck  into 
people.  There  are  women,  and  men  too,  for  that  matter, 
who  seem  to  lack  not  only  the  aggressive,  but  the  resisting 
element.  They  are  born  to  be  cowed.  There  is  no  snap 
in  them.  They  never  stand  up  to  any  thing.  And  if  a 
man,  coarse,  somewhat  tyrannical,  and  a  little  brutal,  has 
them  in  his  house  for  wife  or  daughters,  he  is  tolerably  sure 
to  impose  upon  them.  He  wdll  generally  give  all  that  they 
will  take,  and  can  any  law  be  framed  that  will  prevent  it  ? 

But  where  a  father  loves  and  cherishes  his  daughters,  feel- 
ing that  they  are  a  part  of  himself,  and  that  their  happiness 
is  his  honor,  no  place  in  the  world  is  for  them  so  suitable 
and  fit  as  their  father's  house,  and  no  way  of  getting  a  living 
is  so  suitable  as  with  their  father's  money.  If  they  are  gift- 
ed in  any  direction,  let  them  exercise  their  gifts.  If  money 
follows  such  exercise,  it  is  no  disgrace.  If  the  cultivation 
or  the  desired  and  desirable  exercise  of  their  power  call 
them  away  from  home,  let  them  go ;  and  if,  as  they  attain 
maturity  and  self-poise,  the  absence  is  prolonged,  still  the 
home-circle  is  but  stretched  under  wider  skies — it  is  not 
broken.  If  they  have  no  special  gifts,  there  is  still  the  com- 
mon field  of  home  and  society,  which  will  bear  ages  of  till- 
age without  danger  of  running  to  too  much  richness.  Such 
dependence  is  the  natural  order  of  things,  and  is  not  degrad- 
ing, but  ennobling.     Like  the  quality  of  mercy,  it  blesseth 


and  Worth lessness.  i6i 

him  that  gives  and  her  that  takes,  and  is  even  more  blessed 
in  the  giving  than  in  the  receiving.  I  suppose  the  care, 
provision,  and  support  of  a  family  is  just  as  much  a  means 
of  grace  to  the  care-taker  as  to  the  care-receiver.  For  the 
consolidation  of  his  own  power ;  for  continuity  of  purpose 
and  vitality  of  heart ;  in  one  word,  for  the  perfect  develop- 
ment of  his  manhood,  a  man  needs  wife  and  child  to  cher- 
ish. Nothing  else  so  constantly  calls  forth  his  tenderness, 
his  chivalry,  his  unselfishness.  Surely  it  can  not  be  degrad- 
ing for  a  woman  to  receive  what  it  ennobles  a  man  to  give. 
Surely  God  never  would  have  made  the  instrument  of  a 
man's  salvation  the  tool  of  a  v/oman's  destruction. 

Sometimes,  even  where  the  father  feels  as  all  fathers 
should — where  his  happiness  would  be  in  gratifying  every 
wish  of  his  daughters,  in  winning  for  them  a  home  that 
should  satisfy  at  once  their  wants,  their  tastes,  and  their 
hearts — he  is  yet  unable  to  do  it.  He  can  not  command 
the  income  that  will  enable  them  to  live  as  he  and  they 
would  wish.  Dutiful  and  affectionate  daughters  will  then 
be  glad  to  help  their  father  by  helping  themselves  ;  or,  where 
the  father  is  able  to  provide  and  does  provide  abundantly, 
a  girl  may  still  desire  to  incur  expenses  or  bestow  charities 
which  she  feels  that  her  father  hardly  ought  to  be  asked  to 
meet,  and  she  takes  keen  pleasure  in  some  money-earning 
scheme  of  her  own — a  scheme,  too,  in  which  she  often  en- 
lists her  father's  sympathy  and  assistance.  A  thousand 
such  incidents  diversify  and  enliven,  without  deteriorating 
the  dependence  of  daughter  and  wife ;  but  all  the  same 
and  always  I  maintain  that  the  dependence  of  a  loving 
daughter  upon  a  loving  father  is  the  ideal  condition  of 
things,  and  her  ideal  home  is  in  his  house.  It  is  only  in 
such  or  similar  relations  that  woman  can  do  her  real  w^ork. 
If  she  must  go  out  and  earn  her  living  for  herself,  it  is  so 
much  time  and  vitality  taken  from  her  higher  and  appropri- 


1 62  Woman's  Worth 

ated  to  her  lower  uses.  Whatever  work  she  does  from  in- 
ward prompting,  from  an  irresistible  love  of  it,  detracts  in 
no  wise  from  her  womanliness,  for  the  one  is  as  natural  as 
the  other ;  but  doing  work  simply  to  earn  a  living  is  un- 
natural, and  not  to  be  desired  to  make  her  wise. 

Let  me  not  be  understood  to  defend  a  state  of  things  oc- 
casionally seen,  but  disgraceful  to  all  concerned — a  father 
occupied  only  in  earning  money,  a  wife  and  daughters  occu- 
pied only  in  spending  it.  The  father  is  immersed  in  busi- 
ness, works  early  and  late,  takes  little  holiday  ;  the  wife  and 
daughters  wear  fine  clothes,  fare  sumptuously,  and  live  in 
idleness.  His  life  is  all  drudgery,  theirs  all  recreation. 
His  aim  is  to  keep  as  much  money  out  of  their  clutch  as 
possible,  theirs  is  to  clutch  all  they  can  ;  or,  if  he  is  a 
notch  lower  down  financially,  his  struggle  is  to  meet  their 
ever-clamorous  call.  It  is  a  case  of  self-denial,  without  dig- 
nity, on  the  one  side,  and  of  repulsive  selfishness  on  the  oth- 
er— the  mere  travesty  of  a  family  whose  sham  splendor  is 
the  least  of  its  shams.  Let  us  hope  such  families  are  few ; 
but  there  are  far  too  many  who  verge  toward  it — too  many 
who  find  pleasure  in  finery  wrung  from  toil,  rather  than  in 
the  sympathy  and  affection  of  the  toiler ;  who  care  not  how 
dreary  may  be  the  life,  or  how  ungratified  the  taste  and  un- 
satisfied the  heart  of  the  father,  so  they  can  pursue  their 
round  of  useless  and  senseless  frivolity.  Nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  let  these  women  be  confounded  with  those  saints  and 
martyrs  who  are  connected  with  miserly  and  self-willed  men 
— women  whose  lives  are  a  constant  effort  to  fetch  water 
out  of  a  rock  ;  high-spirited  women,  who  know  that  there  is 
money  enough,  who  know  how  to  spend  money  judiciously, 
yet  who,  to  insure  even  a  scant  supply,  are  forced  to  expend 
upon  their  crabbed  bondholders  an  amount  of  ingenuity  and 
persistence  that,  properly  applied,  would  have  tunneled  the 
Hoosac  Mountain  years  ago.     Their  life  seems  to  be  a  pro« 


and  Worthlessness.  163 

longed  Battle  of  the  Wilderness ;  but  they  look  at  their 
young  in  the  rear,  set  their  teeth,  and  square  themselves  for 
the  fight.  And  they  generally  come  off  conquerors.  They 
educate  their  children,  introduce  them  to  and  keep  them  in 
good  society,  and,  hardest  of  all,  varnish  their  old  dragon 
himself  with  a  thin  coating  of  humanity,  and  hold  him  up 
to  a  shuffling,  shambling  ambling  alongside  themselves. 
Sometimes  Heaven  is  kind,  and  he  dies.  Then  a  sweet 
peace  suffuses  their  lives,  and  their  faces  shine  with  a  lustre 
not  to  be  hidden  by  all  the  crape  wherein  they  swathe  them- 
selves withal. 

Nor  let  me,  by  any  possibility,  be  supposed  to  cherish  or 
defend  that  class  of  women  whose  existence  in  this  country 
one  could  never  credit  except  on  unimpeachable  testimony ; 
women  so  radically  different  from  the  genius  of  the  place 
and  the  age,  so  entirely  aside  from  the  line  of  our  national 
development,  both  in  its  strength  and  its  weakness,  that  I 
am  not  sure  but  we  ought  to  cherish  them  as  a  sort  of  me- 
mento mori — a  needed  reminder  that  human  nature  is  the 
same  in  all  ages  and  countries ;  and  that,  though  we  pride 
ourselves  on  our  independence  and  energy,  there  is  a  latent 
indolence  or  passivity  in  the  blood  which  occasionally  shows 
itself,  and  which  may  at  any  time  burst  out — perhaps  it 
would  be  more  appropriate  to  say  creep  out — and  reduce  us 
to  the  unresisting,  undignified  subordination  of  the  "effete 
despotisms"  of  the  Old  World. 

I  mean  women  who,  by  death  or  disability,  are  deprived 
of  their  natural  guardians  ;  who  have  to  choose  between  tak- 
ing care  of  themselves  and  being  taken  care  of  by  persons 
on  whom  they  have  no  claim,  and  who  choose  the  latter. 
The  natural  guardians  of  a  woman  are  her  father  and  her 
husband.  They,  of  their  own  free  will  and  choice,  assumed 
her  life,  and  it  is  their  shame  if  they  do  not,  or  their  misfor- 
tune if  they  can  not,  provide  for  her.     But  nobody  else  is 


164  Women^s  Worth 

her  natural  guardian.  Upon  no  one  else  has  she  an  un- 
spoken claim.  Into  no  other  home  than  theirs  has  she  an 
undisputed  right  to  enter,  and  no  other  doors  is  it  impossi- 
ble justly  to  close  against  her. 

A  father  dies  leaving  his  family  penniless.  It  is  a  wrong 
thing  to  do,  but  men  will  sometimes  do  it.  We  should  all 
think  it  selfish  and  unmanly  for  the  sons  to  go  on  their  way 
and  leave  the  daughters  to  go  on  theirs,  unhelped.  It  is 
happily  a  sight  we  seldom  do  see.  I  often  wonder  at  the 
bravery,  fidelity,  and  delicacy  with  which  boys  assume  a 
burden  devolved  upon  them,  often  through  what  was  neither 
more  nor  less  than  the  improvidence  or  incapacity  of  their 
fathers.  They  "  fight  the  bitter  fight"  for  two,  or  three,  or  a 
dozen,  without  taking  on  airs,  simply  because  it  is  the  thing 
to  do,  and  never  imagine  themselves  heroic.  But  just  as 
disgraceful  as  it  would  be  for  boys  to  neglect  their  sisters  is 
it  for  sisters  supinely  to  permit  themselves  to  be  a  burden 
upon  their  brothers.  A  sister  has  no  such  claim  upon  her 
brother  as  it  is  ever  safe  to  presume  on.  She  can  not,  after 
arriving  at  maturity,  be  honorably  supported  by  him  unless 
at  his  expressed  and  perfectly  untrammeled  desire.  Even 
then  the  connection  may  not  be  free  from  embarrassment. 
I  can  hardly  conceive  of  a  case  in  which  independence 
would  not  be  preferable.  For  a  time  the  common  support 
may  not  be  onerous,  and  the  common  home  may  be  happy. 
But  by-and-by  the  brother  forms  new  attachments,  and  his 
marriage  puts  a  new  face  on  matters.  He  must  either  main- 
tain two  establishments,  which  he  may  be  very  far  from  able 
to  do,  or  he  must  have  wife  and  sister  in  the  same,  and  very 
few  houses  were  ever  built  large  enough  for  such  an  arrange- 
ment. Men,  and  their  wives,  sisters,  and  mothers,  may  all 
be  saints,  but  when  the  code  of  laws  regarding  married 
women  is  perfected,  it  will  be  a  state-prison  offense  for  a 
man  ever  to  propose  to  his  wife  ///  esse  or  in  posse  to  live  in 


and  Worthies  sues  s.  165 

the  family  with  his  female  relatives.  If  his  wife  propose  it, 
or  they  invite  and  she  accept,  that  is  her  own  affair  \  but  for 
a  man  to  arrange  it,  and  call  that  providing  for  his  wife,  is  a 
part  of  the  naive  and  touching  blindness  which  distinguishes 
men  in  their  conduct  of  delicate  domestic  affairs.  A  girl 
must  then  be  in  some  sense  cast  off  by  her  brother,  or  she 
must  be  a  superfluous  member  of  his  household,  and  uncer- 
tain at  any  time  whether  she  may  not  be  a  burdensome  and 
undesired  one.  The  time  may  come  when  she  will  be  need- 
ed and  summoned,  but  how  much  better  for  her  to  be  self- 
sustaining  from  the  beginning  and  he  summoned  !  This 
does  not  necessarily  involve  isolation  or  even  separation 
from  her  brother,  but  it  does  involve  a  partnership  whose 
benefit  shall  be  mutual,  and  in  whose  existence  both  shall 
have  a  power  of  choice. 

There  are  women  who  will  rest,  or  at  least  exist,  upon 
weaker  ties  than  these ;  who  will  depend  for  support  upon 
the  merest  shadow  of  a  claim  ;  who,  strange  as  it  may  seem, 
appear  to  think  that  it  is  more  unladylike  to  work  for  money 
than  it  is  to  endure  an  obligation.  They  fondly  imagine 
themselves  to  be  decayed  gentlefolk,  and  that  their  narrow, 
straitened,  useless  life  allies  them  to  the  English  nobility. 
So  they  deny  themselves  society,  amusement,  travel,  all 
largeness  of  life  ;  they  shut  themselves  in  dingy  rooms  ever 
growing  dingier ;  live  in  dressing-sacks  from  which  they 
emerge  only  on  rare  state  occasions ;  devote  all  their  pow- 
ers to  evolving  elegant  garments  out  of  shabby  ones,  and 
very  likely  succeed ;  expend  in  the  struggle  to  live  respect- 
ably on  the  allowance  furnished  by  some  grudging  relative 
an  amount  of  time,  industry,  ingenuity,  and  perseverance 
which,  properly  directed,  would  secure  them  an  ample  in- 
come, and  find  their  one  consolation  in  the  reflection  that 
they  are  ladies,  reduced  and  impoverished  like  the  ladies  in 
English  novels,  but  ladies  still.     But  a  lady  would  rather  dig 


1 66  Woman^s  Worth 

ditches,  and  die  in  the  last  one,  than  live  on  charity.  A 
gentlewoman  is  decayed  beyond  all  tradition  of  past  grand- 
eur and  all  hope  of  future  resuscitation  before  she  can  levy 
contributions  on  reluctant  connections,  or  become  the  recip- 
ient of  unwilling  bounty.  No  occupation  is  so  menial  as 
beggary,  and  no  beggary  is  so  mean  as  indirect  beggary. 

Sometimes  these  women  may  be  found  clinging  together, 
and  sometimes  they  attach  themselves  singly  to  other  house- 
holds, and  occupy  an  undefined, but  always  unhandsome  po- 
sition. Few  sights  are  more  pitiable.  "  Anxious  and  aim- 
less," bitter  but  repressed,  without  natural  play  of  the  facul- 
ties or  freedom  of  choice,  dependent  upon  the  will  and  per- 
haps the  caprice  of  men  who  do  not  love  them,  and  who  par- 
tially despise  them,  with  their  good  qualities  depreciated  and 
their  faults  magnified,  their  greatest  virtue  an  enforced  pa- 
tience, and  the  tenderest  feeling  they  excite  a  half-contempt- 
uous pity,  they  tread  their  dreary  way  from  a  youth  without 
spirit  to  an  old  age  without  respect. 

To  be  obliged  to  support  herself  is  a  woman's  misfortune. 

To  shift  the  obligation  from  her  own  shoulders  to  those 
of  another  is  her  fault. 

The  best  place  for  a  woman  is  in  the  home  that  wants  her. 

The  worst  place  is  in  the  home  that  does  not  want  her. 


and  Worthkssness,  167 


IX. 
SERVILE  OCCUPATIONS. 

What  shall  a  girl  do  in  her  father's  house  ? 

Oh !  if  girls  had  but  open  eyes  to  see  the  unreaped  har- 
vests, the  unsown  fields  that  stretch  around  them  ! 

Looking  only  in  one  direction,  we  must  see  that  our  so- 
cial life  is  largely  lacking  in  the  higher  and  finer  elements, 
which  women,  and  perhaps  women  alone,  can  supply.  Men 
are  absorbed  in  affairs.  They  have  often  little  cultivation  ; 
and  even  their  shrewdness,  their  hard  sense,  their  practical 
sagacity  they  are  too  apt  to  leave  behind  them  in  field,  and 
shop,  and  counting-room.  Their  time  is  limited,  their  the- 
ory of  society  meagre,  their  standard  of  womanhood  low, 
and  the  women  whom  they  meet  are  not  concerned  or  adapt- 
ed to  raise  it.  I  have  seen  the  whole  tone  of  conversation, 
even  in  a  brilliant  company,  persistently  dragged  down  by 
one  aggressively  ignorant  and  vulgar  woman.  If  such  a 
thing  can  be  done  in  a  green  tree,  what  can  not  be  done  in 
a  dry?  If  light  can  be  extinguished  by  an  unfavorable  at- 
mosphere, how  much  more  can  it  be  prevented  ?  Not  many 
women  are  aggressively  ignorant  or  aggressively  vulgar,  but 
unconscious  insipidity  is  by  no  means  uncommon.  There 
is  a  great  army  of  women  in  city  and  country  whose  only 
individuality  is  a  flavor  of  goodness.  They  are  of  power 
only  in  the  mass.  Of  themselves  they  give  no  inspiration 
and  hold  no  opinions.  They  are  simply  susceptible  to  in- 
fluences. Their  views  on  most  things  are  nothing  worth. 
In  company  they  have  an  amiable  desire  to  entertain  you, 
and  a  traditional  belief  that  you  are  to  be  entertained  by  con- 


1 68  Woman's  Worth 

versation  ;  so,  when  you  have  by  good  luck  fallen  into  the 
company  of  the  traveler  just  returned  from  Syria,  and  he  is 
deep  in  his  description  of  the  last  hieroglyphical  discovery 
on  Mount  Sinai,  this  good  and  amiable  woman  at  your  el- 
bow strikes  out  with  her  friendly,  self-satisfied  voice,  and 
asks  you  if  you  do  not  feel  sorry  that  round  hats  are  giving 
way  to  bonnets !  If  she  were  a  child  you  would  say  "  Hush !" 
But  she  is  a  woman — yes,  and  a  lady  ;  so  you  reply  polite- 
ly, and  of  course  discursively,  and  are  just  as  effectually  cut 
off  from  Mount  Sinai  as  if  you  had  received  a  telegram  from 
home  that  your  family  are  down,  one  and  all,  with  cholera. 
Yet  the  lady  did  it  out  of  pure  goodness.  Because  you 
were  not  talking,  she  thought  you  were  being  bored.  Mount 
Sinai  had  no  attractions  for  her,  and  she  had  not  discrimi- 
nation enough  to  see  that  it  had  any  for  you.  That  a  W'Om- 
an  could  be  interested  in  hieroglyph  would  have  seemed  to 
her  something  altogether  literary,  unnatural,  blue. 

Even  in  those  classes  where  the  women  are  petted  and 
supported,  and  the  men  preoccupied  with  business,  are  the 
materials  for  social  entertainment  as  rich  and  abundant 
among  women  as  among  men,  and  the  selections  as  sedu- 
lously and  carefully  made  ?  Am  I  wrong  in  thinking  that 
the  complexion,  the  tone  of  our  social  assemblies  is  chiefly 
given  by  men  ?  A  dinner  is  successful  according  as  the 
male  guests  are  bright  or  dull ;  scarcely  according  to  the  fe- 
male guests.  Which  is  the  oftenest  invited  for  pure  agree- 
ableness,  a  man  or  a  woman  ?  Which  is  the  more  common, 
to  bid  a  man  to  your  banquet  because  he  is  his  wife's  hus- 
band, or  a  woman  because  she  is  her  husband's  wife  ? 

But  this  ought  not  to  be.  Women  ought  to  be  good  talk- 
ers. It  is  their  eminent  domain.  There  is  much  banter 
afloat  on  the  subject,  and  one  might  easily  suppose  that  our 
women  were  given  to  talk ;  but  nothing  is  further  from  the 
truth.     Their  fault  in  society  is  that  they  do  not  talk.     They 


and  Worthlessness.  169 

are  timid — not  socially,  but  intellectually.  They  are  afraid 
to  imbibe,  or  to  cherish,  or  to  enunciate  ideas.  They  mis- 
trust their  own  capacities  and  acquirements,  and  have  mis- 
trusted them  so  long  and  so  sincerely  that  the  mistrust  pres- 
ently becomes  final  and  fatal.  They  have  too  much  sense 
to  be  silly,  and  too  little  power  to  be  self- forgetful,  so  they 
take  a  secondary  place  when  they  ought  to  be  in  the  van. 
It  is  not  oppression  on  the  one  part,  nor  superiority  on  the 
other,  but  the  natural  effect  of  a  long  line  of  causes.  Wom- 
en not  only  fear  men,  but  they  fear  each  other.  They  fear 
themselves,  they  fear  hobgoblins  ;  and,  perhaps,  to  their  dy- 
ing day,  never  find  out  that  their  next  neighbor  was  just  as 
afraid  of  them  as  they  vi^ere  of  her,  and  that  it  was  always  a 
question  of  hair's-breadth  which  should  flee  first. 

Here,  then,  is  one  thing  for  girls  to  do  in  their  father's 
houses.  Does  it  seem  slight  ?  Is  it  so  easy  that  girls  can 
give  themselves  to  it,  and  yet  find  time  hang  heavy  on  their 
hands  ?  On  the  contrary,  it  is  so  complicated  and  so  impor- 
tant a  matter,  it  is  an  opportunity  so  vast  and  munificent, 
that  every  w^oman  of  leisure  in  the  country  might  find  in  it 
ample  career,  and  yet  leave  a  large  v.^ork  undone.  No  de- 
partment of  life  offers  a  wider  field  for  influence  than  the 
department  of  society ;  and  here  women  are  by  nature  rulers, 
and  not  subordinates.  But  to  rule,  and  not  to  deteriorate, 
they  ought  to  be  women  indeed,  strong-minded  and  strong- 
hearted  ;  women  of  nerve  and  beauty,  of  ideas  and  opin- 
ions, of  reasons  and  facts ;  women  who  can  influence,  and 
command,  and  control ;  who  can  rebuke  and  encourage ; 
who  shall  sway  men  by  that  which  is  highest  in  both ;  who 
can  discern  and  elicit  the  hidden  power,  and  be  hospitable 
to  the  modest  thought ;  who  can  repress  without  wounding, 
befriend  without  patronizing,  and  refine  without  enervating; 
who  can  resist  silently,  perhaps,  but  steadfastly,  the  onset  of 
popular  fallacy,  turn  quietly  aside  from  a  false  standard,  and 

H 


170  IVoj/ian's  Worth 

frame  and  fashion  not  so  much  by  direct  effort  as  by  indi- 
rect influence.  Such  a  woman  need  not  say,  "  Be  noble,  be 
generous,  be  true  ;"  but,  by  reason  of  some  subtile  quality  in 
herself,  some  unseen  but  persuasive  and  pervasive  power, 
some  insinuating  grace  and  graciousness,  no  man  brings  to 
her  any  thing  but  his  best. 

Do  you  say  such  a  woman  is  born,  not  made?  Rather 
all  women  are  born  to  be  thus  made.  But  the  work  needs 
care,  and  wisdom,  and  mental  training,  observing  eyes  and 
just  reasoning,  wide  benevolence,  and  an  infinite,  delicate 
sympathy.  It  furnishes  scope  for  every  faculty  which  a  wom- 
an possesses,  and  it  demands  imperatively  her  especial  pre- 
rogative— tact.  It  is  a  work  which,  if  not  done  by  women, 
will  not  be  done  at  all.  Man  has  a  perpetual  tendency  to 
disintegration.  Woman  is  the  cohesive  element  of  society. 
It  is  not  in  man  that  walketh  to  direct  his  steps.  It  is  in 
woman  to  direct  them  for  him.  In  the  best  of  men  there  is 
always  a  trait  and  trace  of  the  savage.  It  is,  indeed,  neces- 
sary to  constitute  the  best  sort  of  man.  If  this  savage  is 
well  held  in  hand  by  a  woman,  or  by  the  feminine  force  of 
society,  he  is  a  serviceable  addition  to  our  social  life,  if  not 
in  a  sense  its  substratum  ;  but,  left  to  himself,  he  is  always 
ready  to  spring  upon  the  man  to  his  undoing. 

The  mysterious  attraction  which  every  where  draws  men 
to  women  is  a  sacred  trust  committed  to  women  by  the 
Creator.  It  is  not  only  a  power  irresistible,  but  a  posses- 
sion inalienable.  By  no  misuse  or  disuse  can  it  be  forfeit- 
ed. In  listening  to  some  of  the  arguments  against  woman 
suffrage,  one  might  suppose  that  there  was  danger  lest  the 
sexes  should  become  disaffected  toward  each  other;  lest 
women  should  be  able  so  to  array  themselves  in  masculine 
armor  as  to  alienate  the  regard  of  men.  That  will  never 
be.  The  Minnesota  farmers  were  far  nearer  the  real  state 
of  the  case  in  their  comical  Fourth  of  July  "sentiment :" 


and  Worthies sness.  171 

"  •  The  woman  of  the  coming  time  ?' 

Shall  man  to  vote  app'int  her  ? 
Well,  yes  or  no  ;  your  bottom  dime 

He'll  do  as  she's  a  min'  ter  ! 
We  know  she  '  will,'  or  else  she  '  won't ;' 

'Twill  be  the  same  as  now ; 
And  if  she  does,  or  if  she  don't, 

God  bless  her  anyhow  !" 

It  is  not  beauty,  nor  wit,  nor  goodness,  for  the  attraction  ex- 
ists independent  of  all  these.  It  is  simply  womanhood. 
Man  pays  deference  to  woman  instinctively,  involuntarily, 
not  because  she  is  beautiful,  or  truthful,  or  wise,  or  foolish, 
or  proper,  but  because  she  is  woman,  and  he  can  not  help 
it.  If  she  descends,  he  will  lower  to  her  level ;  if  she  rises, 
he  will  rise  to  her  height.  This  is  the  real  danger — not  that 
she  will  drive  him  from  her,  but  in  that  she  can  not  drive 
him  from  her.  She  can  not  help  being  his  blessing  or  his 
bane.  She  can  not  make  herself  into  a  being  whom  he  will 
not  love.  If  she  is  insipid,  ignorant,  masculine,  coarse,  then 
he  will  love  insipidity,  ignorance,  masculineness,  coarseness, 
and  be  himself  deteriorated.  So  much  the  more  ought  wom- 
an, by  virtue  of  this  mysterious  and  inalienable  power,  to 
rise  to  the  height  of  its  wise  and  worthy  exercise.  Instead 
of  making  it  merely  the  minister  of  her  own  indolence  and 
vanity,  it  should  be  made  to  minister  all  human  grace  and 
succor.  Instead  of  regarding  it  as  a  reason  why  she  may 
dispense  with  prudence  and  wisdom,  it  is  the  reason  of  all 
reasons  why  she  should  concentrate  within  herself  every  re- 
source of  prudence  and  wisdom.  "  I  am  glad  women  are 
not  learned,"  says  a  little  fool ;  "  I  leave  that  to  the  men ;" 
and  imagines  she  has  said  something  womanly  and  winning ; 
and  because  her  feathers,  and  flowers,  and  flutters  some- 
what hide  her  inanity,  and  she  has  her  feeble  following 
among  the  males  of  her  own  kind,  and  the  outward  courtesy 
of  men,  she  is  perhaps  never  undeceived.     But,  whatever 


172  Woman's  Worth 

may  be  said  of  the  undesirableness  of  learning  for  women, 
a  woman  never  lost  any  thing  by  being  intelligent.  Culti- 
vation, information,  intellect  always  tell.  More  than  this, 
their  absence  is  fatal.  Folly  will  not  prevent  beauty  from 
being  attractive  and  admirable  ;  but  whoever  has  other  ends 
in  view  than  the  gratification  of  her  personal  vanity  must 
have  something  besides  beauty.  Loveliness  palls,  and  good- 
ness loses  flavor ;  and  she  who  would  do  any  thing  for  a 
man  but  pull  him  down,  must  add  to  her  virtues  sense. 
Women  ought  to  be  so  ready  in  resource,  so  well  furnished, 
and  well  balanced,  and  high  toned,  as  to  be  the  conscience, 
the  judgment,  the  moral  umpire  of  society.  They  ought  so 
to  live  and  so  to  think  that  men  shall  respect  their  opinions 
and  solicit  their  counsel.  Men  in  the  thick  of  the  fight  may 
sometimes  find  their  views  obscured  ;  women  in  a  tranquil 
atmosphere  should  always  be  clear-sighted. 

But,  before  this  is  done,  women  must  be  able  to  discrim- 
inate between  the  points  on  which  they  are  competent  and 
those  on  which  they  are  incompetent  to  pronounce  opinion. 
How  many  of  these  petted  and  caressed  serfs,  to  whom  the 
father  says, "  You  have  a  good  room,  enough  to  eat,  and 
plenty  of  nice  clothes  to  wear  j  you  are  very  unreasonable 
to  crave  more" — how  many  of  these  girls  have  a  connected 
and  communicable  knowledge  of  the  world's  history  ?  How 
many  of  them  know  where  in  the  cb.ain  of  logic  to  locate 
our  great  Rebellion  or  the  last  great  European  war  ?  How 
many  of  them  know  the  struggles,  the  advances,  the  retro- 
gressions of  mankind  in  its  upward  or  onward  progress  ;  the 
developments  of  character  or  tendency  of  race,  the  trials 
and  the  modifications  of  different  forms  of  governments,  the 
checks  and  the  impulses  in  result  of  which  we  stand  in  our 
place  to-day  .''  But  why  is  it  any  more  exalting  or  ennobling 
to  go  into  a  telegraph  office,  or  a  boot  and  shoe  store,  and 
"  tend"'  all  day,  than  it  is  to  pursue  such  investigations  ?    We 


and  Wort  hies  sness.  173 

say  in  America  that  we  have  no  cultivated  class  like  the 
cultivated  class  of  England,  because  we  have  no  hereditary 
wealth.  Every  one  here  must  first  "get  his  living,"  and 
take  what  of  art,  or  science,  or  literature  he  can  at  odd  hours. 
But  we  look  forward  to  the  time  when  we  shall  have  a  cul- 
tivated class.  We  pay  great  honor  now  to  those  sons  of 
rich  men  who,  instead  of  going  into  business  to  increase  the 
wealth  which  their  fathers  accumulated,  or  goino;  into  dissi- 
pation  to  scatter  it,  betake  themselves  to  learning,  illustrate 
their  country,  honor  their  name,  and  show  the  true  blessing, 
the  highest,  or  one  of  the  highest  uses  of  money.  They  do 
not  perhaps  immortalize  themselves  by  great  discoveries ; 
perhaps  they  add  nothing  to  the  common  stock  of  knowl- 
edge, but  they  are  invaluable  to  those  who  do.  They  form 
a  circle  gratefully  receptive  of  and  stimulative  to  all  great' 
ness  ;  and,  without  noise  or  parade,  by  their  refinement,  their 
calmness,  their  judgment,  their  critical  power,  their  discrim- 
inating observation,  and  freedom  from  personal  ambition, 
they  become  not  only  the  ornamental,  but  one  of  the  most 
useful  and  potential  forces  of  a  society  which  has  sore  need 
of  them. 

I  doubt  not  that  where  young  men  of  these  possibilities 
are  to  be  numbered  by  units,  young  women  are  to  be  num- 
bered by  hundreds.  It  is  the  rule  in  our  country  for  young 
men  to  go  into  some  money-making  business,  whether  their 
fathers  be  rich  or  not.  It  is  the  rule  for  young  women 
whose  fathers  are  rich,  and  for  many  whose  fathers  are  far 
from  rich,  not  to  earn  money.  Here  we  have  at  once  the 
material  for  a  cultivated  society.  We  have  the  very  condi- 
tion necessary  for  intellectual  advancement — that  is,  mate- 
rial comfort.  And,  indeed,  this  is  no  trifling  consideration. 
Believe  me,  girls,  a  good  room,  enough  to  eat,  and  plenty 
of  nice  clothes  to  wear,  "without  the  soiling  one  white  hand" 
to  procure  them,  is  not  a  bad  thing.     The  women  who  must 


174  Wojuan^s  Worth 

spend  all  their  time  in  earning  these  can  not  turn  aside  to 
cultivate  the  amenities  of  literature.  Upon  you — you,  to 
whom  all  these  good  gifts  come  without  money  and  without 
price — upon  you  devolves  the  duty  of  serving  your  country, 
and  repaying  to  society  tenfold  what  it  has  given  you,  by  be- 
coming repositories  of  knowledge  and  of  taste,  shining  lights 
of  social  life,  women  whom  the  wisest  men  shall  seek,  whom 
the  weakest  shall  not  shun,  and  whom  only  the  wicked  shall 
fear,  but  whom  they  shall  fear  exceedingly. 

It  is  but  a  conjecture,  yet  I  offer  the  conjecture  that  if  the 
father  finds  his  three  or  four  daughters  as  conversant  as 
himself  with  the  history  and  philosophy  of  politics,  holding 
opinions  as  decided  and  as  well  founded  and  fortified,  talk- 
ing French  poetry  with  his  French  visitor,  and  German  met- 
aphysics with  the  German  visitor,  each  in  his  own  tongue, 
suggesting  difficulties  to  the  astronomer,  and  adding  curios- 
ities to  the  museum  of  the  professor — it  is  but  a  conjecture, 
yet  I  conjecture  that  this  father  would  by  these  manifesta- 
tions be  as  soon  deterred  from  abusing  his  daughters  as  he 
would  by  the  consciousness  that  he  had  three  or  four  citi- 
zens walking  around  the  house  with  a  ballot  in  their  hands  ! 

To  the  petted,  caressed,  and  indulged  serfs  may  there  not 
be  suggested  the  possibility  of  some  good  work  to  be  wrought 
upon  the  bloated  aristocrat,  the  remorseless  and  relentless 
tyrant  who  thus  pets,  and  caresses,  and  lodges,  and  dresses 
them? 

He  is  a  human  being  even  if  he  is  their  father,  and,  as  a 
human  being,  perhaps  not  wholly  hardened  to  gracious  influ- 
ences. It  is  not  much  to  be  the  father  compared  with  what 
it  is  to  be  the  mother.  Still  it  is  something  ;  and  where  the 
father  does  the  best  he  knows  how,  and  learns  better  as  fast 
as  he  can,  it  is  a  good  deal.  The  father  who  is  now  stand- 
ing prisoner  at  the  bar  seems  to  be  one  of  the  first  of  his 
class.     He  does  all  the  material  duty  of  a  father  in  provid- 


and  Worthlessness.  175 

ing  for  the  material  comfort  of  his  child,  and  he  goes  a  long 
way  in  the  performance  of  all  other  duty  by  loving,  caress- 
ing, and  indulging  her.  Is  it  really  a  worthier,  a  nobler 
thing  for  his  daughter  to  go  into  a  type-setting  establish- 
ment, and  handle  bits  of  metal  all  day,  than  for  her  to  stay 
in  his  house,  to  brighten  his  home,  comfort  his  heart,  kindle 
his  sympathy,  medicine  his  weariness,  freshen  his  ideas,  dis- 
pel his  despondenc}^  pour  youth  into  his  age,  and  keep  him 
mellow,  and  receptive,  and  alert  ?  I  think  work  on  mind  is 
more  dignified,  more  womanly,  and,  for  a  woman,  more  eco- 
nomical than  work  on  matter,  even  if  that  mind  be  your  own 
father's.  If  there  be  also  a  mother ;  if,  besides,  there  are 
three  or  four  brothers  and  sisters,  with  an  occasional  aunt 
or  uncle,  how  can  any  bright,  wide-awake,  well-educated  girl 
be  at  a  loss  for  employment  ?  With  a  family  affectionate, 
well  disposed,  and  well  conditioned ;  with  a  society  intelli- 
gent, free,  and  accessible ;  with  the  world  of  literature,  art, 
and  science  thrown  open  to  every  explorer ;  with  a  future 
as  great  in  promise  as  severe  in  requirement,  be  sure  it  is 
not  opportunity  that  fails,  but  ability  to  see  and  seize  it. 

When  a  man  who  has  inherited  an  abundant  fortune  lives 
narrowly,  dresses  meanly,  and  shuns  the  interests,  the  amen- 
ities, the  responsibilities  of  life,  we  do  not  call  him  a  great 
man,  but  a  small  man,  a  miserable  man,  a  miser.  If  a  young 
man,  in  good  health,  of  good  education,  refined  associations, 
and  ample  means,  should,  at  the  age  of  twenty  years,  choose 
to  become  a  miner,  or  a  coal-heaver,  or  a  hod-carrier,  we 
should  not  call  it  nobleness  or  independence.  We  should 
merely  think  that  it  showed  a  low  taste.  He  is  not  earning 
his  living,  because  he  has  his  living  without  earning  it.  A 
living  is  the  first,  least,  and  lowest  object  of  desire.  It  is 
the  common  aim  to  secure  that,  and  then  build  upon  it  the 
beauties,  graces,  and  sweetness  of  living.  So  it  seems  to 
me  that  a  woman  who  turns  away  from  the  living  which  her 


176  Woman^s  Worth 

father  provides,  and  gives  her  time  and  strength  to  provid- 
ing one  for  herself,  is  wasting  the  advantages  to  which  she 
was  born,  and  falls  below  the  standard  of  divine — that  is,  of 
natural — requirement.  Instead  of  beginning  her  ascent  from 
the  half-way  house  where  she  finds  herself,  she  goes  to  the 
foot  of  the  mountain  and  climbs  up.  If  the  question  is  be 
tween  idleness  and  dress-making,  by  all  means  let  a  girl 
leave  her  comfortable  home  and  apprentice  herself  to  a 
dress-maker,  but  let  her  not  demand  admiration  for  hei 
grandeur  of  character  in  so  doing.  It  is  better  to  be  a 
dress-maker  than  to  be  an  idler,  but  it  requires  a  far  higher 
order  of  mind  and  heart  to  do  the  social  work  that  awaits 
the  woman  of  leisure  than  to  make  gowns.  It  is  better  to 
do  the  lower  work  than  none  at  all,  but  it  is  not  better  than 
to  do  the  higher  work.  If  a  girl  goes  into  a  shoe  factory  to 
run  a  sewing-machine,  it  is  chiefly  a  matter  of  hours,  pieces, 
routine.  If  she  lives  the  best  life  at  home,  she  must  ob- 
serve, infer,  compare,  forbear — she  must,  in  short,  enlist  ev- 
ery faculty  of  mind  and  heart,  and  this  is  far  more  complex 
than  routine  work.  If  she  must  enter  the  factory  because 
her  father  is  poor  or  churlish,  that  is  another  question ;  but 
if  she  goes  because  she  chooses  it,  she  simply  confesses 
thereby  her  incapacity  for  a  more  exacting  career,  and  ranks 
herself  beneath  many  a  poor  girl  who  toils  because  she  must 
— toils  under  protest,  and  loves  high  all  the  while  she  lives 
low. 

I  do  not  think  these  cases  are  common  in  life.  The  girls 
one  usually  meets  in  societi^  are,  happily,  quite  ready  to  take 
the  good  the  gods  provide  them.  Petted  and  caressed  daugh- 
ters, whose  comforts  are  provided  and  whose  tastes  are  grat- 
ified, will  sometimes  become  artists,  writers,  teachers,  sisters 
of  charity,  but  I  never  knew  one  who  was  possessed  with 
the  desire  of  earning  her  own  living.  There  may  be  such 
women,  but  probably  the   closest  scrutiny  would  discover 


and  Worthlessness.  177 

that,  almost  without  exception,  women  earn  mone}^  from  ne- 
cessity, not  choice.  They  do  it  to  piece  out  the  scanty  in- 
come of  husband  or  father.  They  do  it  because  he  is  nig- 
gardly, tyrannical,  and  insulting,  and  any  menial  service  to 
a  stranger  is  better  than  dependence  on  such  kinfolk.  They 
do  it  from  love,  or  from  disdain  for  help  or  defense,  but 
never  of  pure  liking  and  free  choice.  The  honored  and  be- 
loved wife,  the  beloved  and  cherished  daughter,  not  only 
never  ought,  but  never  does,  feel  discomfort  in  dependence. 
She  has  no  desire  to  renounce  serfdom  or  to  break  chains, 
for  there  is  no  serfdom  to  renounce,  no  chain  to  break. 
Probably  she  seldom  thinks  of  it  at  all ;  but  if  she  does 
think  of  it,  she  thinks  only  how  much  happier  is  her  lot,  who 
is  nourished  through  the  ministry  of  love,  than  her  neigh- 
bor's, whose  life  is  only  a  thankless  round  of  buying  and 
selling.  Girls  born  to  wealth  are  ready  enough  to  be  idle, 
ready  enough  to  be  ignorant,  and  more  ready  still  to  be  friv- 
olous. Unhappy  girls  break  away  from  narrow  homes — 
from  selfish,  domineering  fathers  ;  from  wayworn,  heart- wea- 
ry mothers  ;  from  coarse,  hated,  and  hopeless  surroundings 
— to  fight  feebly  or  bravely,  but  single-handed,  the  hard  bat- 
tle. The  one  needs  to  be  roused  and  incited  to  higher  aims, 
to  better  thinking,  to  wiser  and  wider  living ;  the  other  as 
sorely  needs  to  be  recognized,  instructed,  encouraged  ;  but 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other  is  enamored  of  pure  self-sup- 
port. Without  assuming  to  have  made  the  slightest  investi- 
gation, I  count  it  not  hazardous  to  assert  that  of  all  the  re- 
spectable young  working-women  in  the  country,  the  most 
excellent  and  intelligent,  nine  out  of  ten  would  relinquish 
with  joy  their  money  independence  in  the  prospect  of  be- 
coming the  "  loving  and  beloved"  wife  of  a  man  who  was 
able  to  maintain  them,  while  the  caressed  and  petted  daugh- 
ters who  would  rush  into  self-support  as  a  refuge  from  their 
caressing  and  despotic  fathers  is  a  class  of  the  community 

H  2 


lyS  Wo77ta7i's  Worth 

seldom  met^  except  in  the  columns  of  certain  earnest  and 
benevolent  newspapers. 

Far  distant  be  the  day  that  shall  make  it  otherwise.  Far 
distant  be  the  day  that  shall  send  girls  out  from  their  fa- 
ther's roof  to  make  their  own  way  in  life,  as  boys  make 
theirs.  Immeasurably  further  that  day  that  reckons  it  no 
reproach  to  the  husband  for  the  wife  to  feel  her  dependence 
upon  him  an  unpleasant  thing.  Badly  as  women  do  man's 
work,  men  do  woman's  work  still  worse  ;  for  it  is  a  far  more 
complicated,  intangible,  and  indefinite  thing.  Women  them- 
selves do  it  not  too  well,  largely  because  our  imperfect  civ- 
ilization has  as  yet  kept  them  bound  so  closely  to  the  rough- 
er toil  of  man.  But  if  women,  having  been  so  long  dragged 
into  that  arena  as  straggling,  struggling  prisoners,  shall  now 
organize  their  forces,  and  voluntarily  march  in  with  intent 
to  stay  there  as  their  fitting  and  final  place — why,  water  will 
run  up  hill  and  fire  will  flame  downward.  Under  certain 
stress  of  influence,  water  will  run  up  hill,  and  a  fierce  breath 
will  fan  the  flame  awry ;  but  Nature  is  never  permanently 
disturbed,  and,  in  spite  of  all  human  hydraulics  and  pyro- 
technics, 

"  Rivers  to  the  ocean  run, 

Nor  stay  in  all  their  course ; 
Fire,  ascending,  seeks  the  sun ; 
Both  speed  them  to  their  source." 

Note. — It  is  but  fair  to  say  that,  since  the  above  was  printed,  an  en- 
ergetic young  lady  writes  to  me,  "/am  one  of  the  many  wom.en  whom  I 
could  show  you  who  are  '  possessed  with  the  desire  of  earning  their  own 
living.'  I  would  not  be  dependent  on  my  father  (there  are  few  fathers 
his  equals  .  .  ,  .  )  if  he  were  a  millionaire  to-morrow.  Solely  from  the 
'desire  of  earning  my  own  living,'  I  would  go  into  a  factory  if  I  could 
not  get  my  own  shoes,  and  hats,  and  books  in  any  other  way.  I  never 
supported  myself  to  '  piece  out  the  scanty  income'  of  my  father,  or  '  be- 
cause he  was  niggardly,  tyrannical,  insulting'  (as  well  might- an  angel  in 
heaven  be  !),  or  *  from  love  or  from  disdain  for  help  or  defense,'  but  from 


and  Worthlessness.  179 

'pure  liking  and  free  choice.'  There's  no  man  alive  on  whom  I  would 
be  dependent  till  my  last  sickness  knocked  me  helpless.  If  I  had  mar- 
ried it  would  be  just  the  same.  In  fact,  it  seems  to  me  more  unnatural 
to  be  dependent  on  one's  husband  than  one's  father." 

To  which  I  would  simply  add  the  suggestion  that  when  these  princi- 
ples are  carried  out  in  practice  to  their  legitimate  conclusion,  we  shall 
not  wait  long  for  our  last  sickness,  but  be  knocked  helpless  in  liminCy 
and  I,  for  one,  should  not  much  care. 


i8o  Woma7i's  Worth 


X. 

HOME  TRAINING. 

If  there  is  any  person  who  has  a  keener  sense  than  the 
present  writer  of  the  faults  of  men  in  their  ov/n  famiUes — 
their  selfishness,  their  brutality,  their  downright  dishonesty 
— that  person  is  to  be  pitied.  Yet  is  there  not  something 
touching  in  the  situation  ?  A  man  works  all  day  with  brain 
or  hand,  or  both,  year  in  and  year  out,  forecasting,  planning, 
anxious ;  and  not  his  ships  on  the  sea  or  his  shops  on  the 
land,  but  some  tender,  fragile  wife,  some  little  chit  of  a  child, 
it  is  who  holds  all  his  happiness  in  her  feeble  hands.  He 
exiles  himself  from  home  eleven  months  in  the  year,  six 
days  in  the  week,  shutting  himself  in  dreary  chambers,  liv- 
ing in  dismal  boarding-houses,  not  that  his  children  may  be 
fed  and  taught,  but  that  life  may  be  gay  and  blithe  to  them  ; 
that  they  may  have  the  dainties  and  luxuries  which  he  could 
not  otherwise  aiford  them,  and  for  which  he  himself  has  no 
especial  taste.  His  enjoyment  is  not  in  kid  gloves  and  fresh 
ties,  but  in  his  children's  enjoyment  of  them.  Often,  when 
he  is  peevish,  tyrannical,  and  inconsiderate,  it  seems  more 
the  result  of  the  false  teachings  and  wrong  surroundings  of 
generations  than  any  spontaneous  outburst  of  original  sin  in 
himself  The  selfishness  is  more  superficial,  if  it  is  at  the 
same  tim.e  more  obvious  and  disagreeable,  than  the  unself- 
ishness. Deep  down  out  of  sight  is  a  root  of  pure  affection, 
a  capacity  for  self-abnegation  ;  but  nobody  ever  thought  a 
man  had  any  thing  to  do  with  such  things  as  self-abnegation. 
His  mother  believed  it  was  her  prerogative,  and  never  taught 
him  the  virtues  of  daily  and  hourly  consideration  for  others  ; 
and  as  for  the  father — fathers  have  been  rowing  in  the  same 


and  Worthlessness.  i8i 

boat  for  generations.  So  the  man,  kind  at  heart,  and  mean- 
ing only  good  to  his  fellows,  goes  helplessly  on,  making  him- 
self odious  by  small  tyrannies  and  unrepresSed  impatience, 
simply  because  self-sacrifice  and  self-repression  have  never 
been  drilled  into  him.  If  wife  or  child  be  sick,  he  vi^ill  move 
heaven  and  earth  to  heal  them.  Then  he  denies  himself 
instinctively ;  does  not  know  that  it  is  denial.  Sleepless 
nights  and  anxious  days,  lavish  expenditure  and  the  tender- 
est  and  most  unwearying  care,  count  for  nothing  to  save  the 
lives  or  restore  the  health  of  those  whose  tastes  and  feelings 
he  has  ruthlessly  trampled  on  a  thousand  times,  and  will 
trample  on  again  as  soon  as  they  are  strong  enough  to  bear 
it.  Here  is  good  missionary  ground  for  an  enterprising 
Christian  young  woman  to  occupy,  and  not  the  less  so  that 
the  heathen  pays  all  her  expenses,  and  does  not  know  that 
he  is  her  field  of  operations. 

If  the  daughters  of  a  house  are  "  abject,  timid,  dissatisfied 
women,  whom  it  is  a  pleasure  to  abuse  because  they  can't 
help  themselves,"  it  is  simply  because  they  are  not  bright. 
They  are  what  is  called  in  vulgar  phrase  "  under  par."  They 
are  the  very  persons  who  ought  not  to  vote — not  because 
they  are  women,  but  because  they  are  idiots.  A  grown-up 
woman  who  will  stay  at  home  and  let  her  father  abuse  her 
is  an  object  of  pity,  and  should  be  sent  to  South  Boston  to 
receive  the  protection  of  the  law,  rather  than  to  Beacon  Hill 
to  make  it. 

A  thousand  times  less  even  can  the  ballot  do  for  a  wom- 
an, a  thousand  times  less  is  a  woman  fit  for  the  ballot,  who 
is  not  her  husband's  equal  at  home.  Nothing  but  character 
can  give  her  this  position,  and  nothing  but  her  own  weak- 
ness— weakness  of  will  or  of  wit — can  take  it  away.  True, 
a  man's  peevishness,  perverseness,  and  pertinacity  will  often 
make  headway  against  immense  superiority  of  nature  in  a 
woman  —  indeed,  because  of  this  superiority.     The  great 


1 82  Wojjian's  Worth 

heart  yields  where  a  petty  heart  would  resist,  and  there  is 
silence  instead  of  sputtering.  How  this  is  done  was  never 
better  told  than  in  Miss  Mulock's  "  Brave  Lady,"  a  book 
wonderful  for  the  minuteness,  the  awful  fidelity  with  which  it 
transcribes  the  experience  of  a  grand  woman  crucified  by 
marriage  to  a  mean  man.  But  even  there — so  sure  is  supe- 
riority to  conquer  in  that  most  difficult  of  races,  the  long 
run — Miss  Mulock,  all  conservative  and  duty-bound  as  she 
is,  a  writer  who  not  unfrequently  exasperates  one  by  a  con- 
ventional true- womanliness,  a  sweet  submission,  and  defer- 
ence to  marital  and  masculine  superiority  that  is  simply 
fatuous  in  a  woman  of  her  power,  and  is  to  be  forgiven  only 
to  her  English  training — even  Miss  Mulock  is  obliged  to  re- 
lease her  heroine  from  the  logical  necessity  of  leaving  her 
husband  by  discovering  in  him  a  heart-disease  after  the  last 
trunk  is  packed.  To  be  sure,  the  stumbling-block  may  seem 
but  visionary.  If  Heaven  has  sent  a  heart-disease  to  a 
worse  than  worthless  husband,  the  utmost  that  can  be  re- 
quired of  a  wife  is  that  she  should  not  jump  at  him  from  be- 
hind the  door.  That,  however,  is  an  indifferent  matter.  The 
point  established,  so  far  as  Miss  Mulock  can  establish  it,  is 
that  a  woman  who  is  superior  to  her  husband,  and  we  may 
infer  also  one  who  is  his  equal,  must  live  with  him  on  a  foot- 
ing of  equality,  or  she  can  not  live  with  him  at  all.  Laws 
far  more  oppressive  than  our  own  did  not  hide  Josephine's 
ability  from  Mr.  Oldham,  nor  could  divine  sovereignty  have 
revealed  it  to  Edward  Scanlan  except  as  he  already  saw  it 
through  a  glass,  darkly. 

Few  men,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  are  so  hypocritical  and  imbe- 
cile as  Edward  Scanlan.  Those  few  should  be  dealt  with 
summarily.  Many  even  of  the  irritating  domestic  despots 
have  integrity  and  ability.  What  they  lack  is  right  training. 
Now,  if  a  man  of  real  worth  happen  to  have  these  audacious 
plantation  manners,  shall  his  wife  give  in  to  them  ?     Yes,  if 


and  Worthlessness.  183 

she  has  no  respect  for  herself  and  no  regard  for  his  charac- 
ter. But  if  she  values  her  own  growth  in  grace,  if  she  be- 
lieves her  husband  capable  of  becoming  a  polished  corner- 
stone in  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  let  her  set  about  polishing 
him  at  once.  If  he  thinks  that  she  lives  upon  his  bounty, 
let  her  not  try  to  earn  money  in  by-ways,  that  she  may  avoid 
calling  upon  his  bounty,  but  let  her  be  instant  in  season 
and  out  of  season  to  uproot  and  overthrow  his  notion  that 
he  is  bestowing  bounty.  A  woman  takes  a  man  for  her  hus- 
band of  her  own  free  will,  and  she  has  no  right  to  give  up 
his  soul  to  weeds  and  wilderness  because  the  soil  is  hard  to 
cultivate.  Until  she  has  proved  beyond  question  that  he  is 
a  hopeless  desert,  she  should  not  desert  him.  But  to  do 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other — to  see  his  selfishness,  and  to 
pamper  him  in  it ;  to  suffer  from  his  false  opinions  of  their 
relations,  and  yet  to  confirm  him  in  them  ;  to  endeavor  to 
compete  with  him  in  buying  and  selling,  instead  of  showing 
him  how  far  more  vital,  how  infinitely  more  intricate  is  her 
work  than  all  his  buying  and  selling — this  implies  a  reck- 
lessness of  moral  and  conjugal  obligations  not  pleasing  to 
contemplate.  If  she  can  not  convert  him  she  may  control 
him.  If  she  can  not  renew,  she  can  at  least  repress.  If 
she  can  not  open  his  heart,  she  can  close  his  lips.  If  she 
can  not  bring  him  to  walk  with  her  happily  in  the  right 
path,  she  ought  to  prevent  him  from  taking  any  comfort  in 
the  wrong. 

The  trouble  is  that  women  too  often  hold  the  same  erro- 
neous opinions  as  their  husbands.  They,  too,  fancy — or  at 
least  admit — that  pecuniary  dependence  involves  inferiority 
of  position.  Because  their  husbands  earn  the  money,  and 
themselves  spend  it ;  because  their  husbands  claim  to  be 
the  real  owners  of  property,  and  class  the  wife  as  a  recipient 
of  favor,  they  let  it  go  so,  think  it  is  so,  act  as  if  it  were  so. 
Thus  men  walk  blindly,  led  by  blind  leaders. 


184  Wo /nan's  Worth 

Just  as  well  might  the  rough  and  rocky  foundation  claim 
to  be  superior  to  the  marble  temple  that  rises  upon  it  state- 
ly and  beautiful.  The  foundation  supports  the  temple  ;  the 
temple  does  not  support  the  foundation.  The  foundation  is 
not  dependent  upon  the  temple  ;  the  temple  is  dependent 
on  the  foundation.  Therefore  the  temple  is  the  inferior  and 
subordinate  structure  ! 

The  queen  is  dependent  upon  her  subjects.  The  work 
she  does  for  them  is  almost  as  intangible  as  the  ideal  wom- 
an's work,  but  nobody  considers  the  queen  degraded  there- 
by. It  is  because  she  is  queen  that  all  her  realm  pays  trib- 
ute to  her.  Would  her  position  be  exalted,  or  would  she  do 
more  for  her  kingdom  by  apprenticing  herself  to  a  linen- 
draper  ?  She  might,  indeed,  earn  her  wage,  but  she  would 
have  to  give  up  being  queen. 

If  there  is  really  no  need  of  queens,  let  the  queen  turn 
linen-draper.  If  there  is  really  no  better  work  for  women, 
let  them  become  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  and 
thus  obtain  equality  with  men.  Let  the  marble  dome  grub 
in  the  earth  alongside  the  granite  foundation,  and  witch  the 
world  with  noble  architecture. 

The  demand  on  the  part  of  female  writers  and  speakers 
that  women  shall  earn  their  own  living,  the  assertion  that 
they  must  earn  their  own  living  in  order  to  retain  their  self- 
respect,  ought  not  to  surprise  one,  and  is,  indeed,  rather  an 
encouraging  token.  Any  thing  is  better  than  for  a  wife  to 
remain  unprotesting  in  the  degraded  and  dishonoring  posi- 
tion assigned  her  in  too  many  families.  If  the  only  way  out 
of  it  were  through  ditch-digging,  she  would  much  better  dig 
ditches  than  stay  in  her  place  content.  No  doubt  ditch- 
digging  is  easier  work  than  converting  many  of  these  hard- 
headed  husbands  to  right  ideas  of  their  own  place  in  the 
world  after  they  have  gone  on  for  years  imagining  them- 
selves the  sole  rightful,  and  making  themselves  the  sole  real, 


atid  U'jrthlessiiess.  185 

authority  in  the  family.  But  if  women  would  only  begin 
right !  Nature  seems  to  have  been  aware  that  man  in  his 
ordinary  estate  is  not  malleable,  and  when  she  is  about  to 
bring  him  into  "  the  Woman's  Kingdom"  she  has  recourse 
to  special  means  of  grace ;  she  causes  him  to  undergo  a 
preparatory  process  of  softening  and  sweetening,  which  the 
unregenerate  call  being  "  in  love,"  and  which  relegates  him 
to  the  woman's  care,  pliable,  yielding,  and,  indeed,  amazing- 
ly susceptible  to  her  wise  and  gracious  influence.  This  is 
the  tide  in  the  affairs  of  women  which,  taken  at  the  flood, 
leads  on  to  fortune.  Omitted,  all  the  voyage  of  their  lives 
is  likely  to  be  bound  in  shallows  and  in  miseries.  This  is 
the  time  for  a  woman,  not  to  assert  her  equality,  not  to  an- 
nounce her  sovereignty — for  that  might  imply  a  possible  op- 
posite opinion — but  to  assume  it.  The  time  during  which 
her  authority  is  unquestioned  should  be  sedulously  employed 
in  making  it  unquestionable.  It  is  at  the  beginning  that 
wrong  action  can  be  hindered.  It  is  the  rising  of  a  wrong 
spirit  that  should  be  repressed.  A  woman  is  the  mistress 
in  her  own  house  ;  and  if  her  authority  be  disputed,  or,  worse 
still,  despised,  the  world  had  better  stop  revolving  than  she 
yield  to  the  msubordination.  But  if  she  has  gone  on  for 
years  giving  way  before  it,  she  may  nearly  as  well  hope  to 
turn  the  stars  Irom  their  courses  as  the  man  from  his  ways, 
though  it  never  can  be  too  late  to  try  to  mend.  The  very 
first  outcropping  of  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  husband 
to  look  upon  their  property  or  their  income  as  any  more  his 
than  hers  should  be  indirectly,  if  possible,  but  resolutely  and 
really,  put  down.  When  a  woman  is  married  to  a  man,  the 
idea  is  that  they  are  made  one.  If  they  are  one,  she,  at  the 
very  least,  becomes  endowed  with  all  his  worldly  goods.  If 
they  are  two,  they  have  not  scripturally  been  married  at  all. 
But  would  not  this  involve  control  of  business,  justify,  or  at 
least  permit,  extravagance  on  the  part  of  the  wife,  and  place 


1 86  IVoman^s  Worth 

the  husband  completely  at  her  mercy  ?  Yes,  if  the  problem 
of  life  is  to  be  wrought  out  by  arithmetic.  Yes,  if  a  social 
principle  or  a  rule  of  ethics  be  as  exact,  as  exhaustive,  and 
as  immitigable  as  the  multiplication  table.  I  do  not  know 
how  to  express  the  rightful  ownership  of  a  woman  in  her 
husband's  property  without  using  language  which  should  al- 
low a  disastrous  interference  with  his  business,  neither  can 
I  express  strongly  enough  my  opinion  that  a  man  should 
manage  his  business  himself  without  using  language  which 
should  involve  an  exclusion  of  his  wife  from  the  control  of 
their  property.  And,  unfortunately,  language  is  no  more  un- 
manageable than  facts.  Men  will  conduct  their  affairs  on 
principles  so  unsound  that  ruin  and  disgrace  must  follow, 
while  their  wives  see,  understand,  and  deplore  the  causes 
which  bring  ruin,  and  vainly  strive  to  apply  the  checks  that 
would  prevent  it,  or  the  remedies  that  would  restore  prosper- 
ity. Yet  the  general  fact  remains  that  the  man  is  the  right- 
ful natural  manager  in  business,  and  the  woman  the  right- 
ful natural  manager  at  home.  And  in  actual  trial  there  is 
not  only  no  trouble  involved  in  this  arrangement,  but  there 
always  must  be  trouble  without  it.  Economy,  improvement, 
harmony,  and  happiness  are  impossible  under  any  other  re- 
gime. A  wife  is  never  more  unbecomingly  occupied  than 
in  meddling  with  her  husband's  business,  and  a  man  is  nev- 
er more  despicable  than  when  he  is  bothering  around  in  the 
house.  The  phrase  is  not  elegant,  I  know,  but  it  is  elegant 
enough  for  the  thing  phrased.  There  is  no  reason  why  a 
man  should  not  control  his  business  himself,  except  that  he 
is  unfit  for  it ;  and,  if  he  is  unfit  for  it,  his  wife  should  not 
have  married  him,  in  the  first  place.  If  a  man  has  not  con- 
fidence enough  in  a  woman  to  intrust  his  house  to  her  care, 
he  should  not  have  asked  her  to  be  his  wife  at  all.  If  either 
has  made  a  poor  choice,  he  must  simply  make  the  best  of 
it.    This  classification  of  responsibility  means  neither  isola- 


and  Worthkssness.  187 

tlon  nor  autocracy  on  any  subject  whatever.  The  wife 
whose  position  is  precisely  what  it  ought  to  be  is  the  one 
who  makes  her  husband's  comfort,  convenience,  and  pleas- 
ure the  first  principle  of  housekeeping.  The  man  who  is 
most  successful  in  conducting  his  business  is  the  very  one 
who  is  likely  to  talk  it  over  every  now  and  then  with  his 
wife.  The  wife  who  has  only  to  go  to  the  bureau-drawer 
or  to  send  to  the  bank  for  money,  with  a  clear  understand- 
ing of  the  resource  whence  bank  and  bureau  draw  their  sup- 
ply, and  of  the  plans  and  requirements  of  the  future,  is  the 
very  wife  who  will  make  that  money  go  the  farthest  and 
bring  the  most.  In  the  ideal  family  there  is  constant,  in- 
stinctive, conscious,  and  unconscious  consultation.  The  hus- 
band and  wife  are  in  all  each  other's  thoughts.  Authority 
never  appears,  for  it  is  never  appealed  to.  The  husband 
and  wife  simply  go  on  from  day  to  day  leading  the  life  which 
is  natural,  doing  the  things  that  are  considerate,  helpful,  rest- 
ful, heartening,  that  make  business  interesting  as  well  as  lu- 
crative, and  home  stimulant  as  well  as  happy.  And  when 
you  see  these  homes — homes  free  from  the  ostentation  of 
love,  but  full  of  its  richness — little  worlds  of  busy  thought, 
and  activity,  and  opinion,  not  devoid  of  perplexity,  not  ex- 
empt from  trouble,  but  always  nurturing  a  character  free,  and 
fresh,  and  strong,  and  wholesome — it  seems  as  if  this  is  the 
only  kind  of  home  that  ever  could  be. 

Alas  !  that  it  is  not.  Alas  !  that  its  rarity  is  largely  be- 
cause women  will  not  come  to  their  own — to  that  which 
would  be  theirs  for  the  coming,  and  which  no  ballot  could 
ever  give  or  take  away.  Looking  at  those  unhappy  men 
whose  wives  and  mothers  have  permitted  them  to  grow  up 
crabbed,  morose,  unreasonable,  domineering,  illiberal,  one 
might  speak  like  David  in  haste,  and  say.  If  a  man  is  not 
good  by  nature  he  can  not  be  good  by  grace.  Yet  I  sus- 
pect there  is  no  creature  more  amenable  to  training,  as 


1 88  JVoman's  Worth 

there  is  certainly  none  more  dependent  upon  training,  than 
man.  The  irreclaimable  are  few.  By  far  the  greater  num- 
ber might,  by  firm,  gentle,  wise  treatment,  be  made  as  good 
and  agreeable  in  the  common  as  they  are  in  the  casual  re- 
lations of  life  ;  might  be  made  as  reasonable  at  home  as 
they  are  polite  abroad  ;  and  if  by  no  patience  and  no  possi- 
bility can  gentle  treatment  make  them  good,  then,  as  I  have 
already  hinted,  let  heroic  treatment  make  them  submissive. 
Here  nothing  avails  but  a  courage  that  amounts  to  reckless- 
ness. This  women  seldom  have  till  the  last  gun  is  fired. 
They  are  more  afraid  of  public  speech  than  private  suffer- 
ing. They  will  toil  and  moil,  coax,  storm,  overreach,  con- 
trive, argue,  tease,  shame,  scold,  but  keep  on  ;  and  the  hus- 
band does  not  mind  the  teasing  and  scolding,  and  does  not 
know  of  the  overreaching  and  contriving,  and  really  cares 
for  nothing  at  all  so  long  as  the  wife  keeps  on.  The  only 
thing  he  would  care  for  she  does  not  do.  She  does  not 
plant  herself  fair  and  square,  without  words,  but  with  an  un- 
alterable resolution,  on  her  reserved  rights.  A  farmer  will 
go  out  in  the  morning  with  three  or  four  hired  men,  and 
leave  his  wife,  without  any  servant,  to  do  all  the  work, 
which  she  does  not  complain  of,  but  also  to  bring  in  wood 
and  water,  which  she  does  complain  of  Now  if,  instead  of 
complaining,  and  bringing  wood,  and  making  up  for  lost 
time  by  extra  hurrying,  she  would  leave  her  cooking-stove 
at  the  precise  point  where  wood  or  water  gave  out,  and 
spend  the  rest  of  the  morning  in  pleasant  reading,  welcome 
her  husband  when  he  comes  home  hungry  to  dinner  with 
that  cheerful  smile  that  we  read  so  much  about  in  the  news- 
papers, and  say  pleasantly,  "  Charley,  dear,  you  did  not  leave 
me  any  wood.  I  will  be  setting  the  table  while  you  are 
building  the  fire  again,  and  we  will  have  dinner  all  ready  in 
two  hours,"  how  much  more  likely  would  Charley  be  to  fill 
I'nc  v;ood-box  next  day  before  he  drove  his  team  afield  !     A 


aJid  Worthlessness.  189 

masterly  inactivity  is  more  effective  than  scolding.  If  a 
wife  is  denied  access  to  or  power  over  the  common  income, 
and,  instead  of  striving  to  keep  up  appearances  on  a  nig- 
gardly and  grudged  allowance,  which,  after  all,  may  be  the 
result  of  pure  inexperience,  would  swiftly,  deftly,  and  em- 
phatically bring  dress,  table,  husband,  every  thing  down  to 
the  allowance,  wearing  only  calico  gowns,  and  pinning  a 
towel  around  the  children's  necks — putting  the  deficiencies, 
that  is,  where  her  husband  could  perceive  them — I  think  he 
would  speedily  relinquish  his  solitary  grandeur,  and  pray 
madam  to  become  chairman  of  a  committee  of  appropria- 
tions. Once  a  man  gave  his  wife  five  dollars  to  buy  a  little 
lad's  first  outfit.  She  stretched  it  as  far  as  it  could  be 
stretched,  cut  up  her  own  cambric  gowns,  and  for  the  rest 
assumed  indifference,  and  made,  after  all,  a  brave  display. 
The  five  dollars  was  perhaps  enough  to  buy  one  little  slip. 
Suppose,  now,  she  had  bought  the  little  slip,  and  said  to  her 
husband,  "  It  is  to  be  hoped,  my  dear,  that  our  son  will  bring 
a  hardy  constitution  with  him,  as  there  is  nothing  awaiting 
him  in  this  world  but  one  muslin  frock" — which  will  proba- 
bly astonish  the  nurse,  and  make  lively  talk  among  the 
neighbors — "but,  if  you  like  it,  I  have  no  objection,  and  no 
doubt  there  will  be  a  contribution  taken  up  for  him  in  church 
before  winter  sets  in  !" 

There  are  undoubtedly  cases  in  which  defective  law 
causes  suffering  in  families,  but  we  are  utterly  beguiled  by 
words  if  we  suppose  that,  in  the  every-day  family  life,  be- 
cause the  husband  votes  and  the  wife  does  not,  the  husband 
has  therefore  any  real  power  over  the  wife;  that  because 
the  father  is  a  citizen,  and  the  daughters  are  not,  he  takes 
opportunity  to  abuse  them.  If  he  domineers  over  them 
now,  he  will  domineer  them  into  voting  his  way.  If  they 
have  not  spirit  enough  and  wit  enough  to  hold  their  own 
against  him  now,  they  will  surely  follow  him,  a  timid,  ab- 


190  Wojnan^s  Worth 

ject,  and  dissatisfied  procession,  to  the  polls.  And  good 
enough  for  them,  and  good  enough  for  all  women  who  are  so 
foolish  and  weak  as  to  let  men  tyrannize  over  them,  when 
nature  and  grace  alike  call  upon  women  to  tyrannize  over 
men! 


and  Worthlessness,  191 


XI. 
FEMALE  SAGACITY  IN  POLITICS. 

The  ballot  is  the  head  and  front  of  the  "  Woman  Move- 
ment." Work  and  wages,  education,  property  rights,  all 
are  subordinate  to  or  comprehended  in  the  one  demand  for 
female  suffrage.  It  is  not  claimed  that  the  suffrage  will  im- 
mediately redress  every  wrong,  but  it  is  claimed  that  wrongs 
will  not  and  can  not  be  righted  without  it.  The  demand 
for  the  suffrage  is  based,  first,  on  woman's  natural  right  to 
it ;  secondly,  on  the  ground  that  it  is  effective,  and,  indeed, 
necessary  for  the  purification  of  politics  and  the  uplifting  of 
society  ;  and,  thirdly,  that  woman  needs  it  for  her  own  pro- 
tection against  unjust  laws. 

The  question  of  natural  right  is  an  abstract  one,  and  may 
be  argued  forever  without  changing  one's  preconceived  opin- 
ion. Some  persons  even  deny  that  there  exists  such  a  thing 
as  natural  right  to  vote  ;  but  if  it  do  exist,  it  is  dif^cult  to 
see  why  a  woman  does  not  possess  it  in  precisely  the  same 
measure  as  a  man.  Certainly  no  argument  has  ever  been 
presented  by  the  opponents  of  female  suffrage  that  seems  to 
me  to  have  a  particle  of  weight.  But  the  matter  appears  to 
be  of  slender  practical  importance.  When  women  have  ac- 
quired the  power  to  vote,  their  right  to  do  so  will  pass  out 
of  discussion  ;  and  so  long  as  they  are  not  able  to  do  so, 
the  right  is  of  little  use. 

As  to  the  second  point,  the  improvement  of  politics,  are 
we  equally  at  the  mercy  of  pure  reason  ?  Must  we  simply 
say  that  women  are  better  than  men,  and,  therefore,  when 
women  become  officially  connected  with  politics,  it  follows 


192  Woman^s  Worth 

as  the  night  the  day  that  politics  will  become  clarified  ? 
Must  we,  that  is,  walk  by  faith  alone  till  the  rising  sun  of 
woman's  enfranchisement  shall  turn  faith  into  sight  ? 

We  are  not  here  left  wholly  without  witness.  The  char- 
acter and  effect  of  participation  in  politics  by  \vomen  are 
not  wholly  matters  of  conjecture.  Women  have  now  for 
many  years  directly  concerned  themselves  in  politics,  and 
the  champions  of  female  suffrage  boast  of  victories  already 
won — years  ago,  through  the  influence  of  women,  under  the 
marshaling  of  men  ;  later,  by  the  direct  efforts  of  women, 
organized  by  their  own  leaders  upon  their  own  principles. 
When,  therefore,  we  are  called  upon  to  say  whether  the  de- 
sired improvement  in  society  will  be  furthered  by  placing 
men  and  women  in  the  same  position — not  as  men  and  wom- 
en, but  as  citizens,  with  identical  duties  and  identical  respon- 
sibilities, or,  rather,  for  this  is  not  an  adequate  statement  of 
the  case,  whether  society  will  be  advanced  by  wom.an's  se- 
curing or  by  man's  assigning  her  what  have  been  consider- 
ed  his  own  peculiar  duties  and  responsibilities  in  addition  to 
those  which  she  already  has  in  common  with  him  and  those 
which  are  peculiarly  hers,  and  which  she  can  not  delegate 
to  him,  then  it  is  fair  and  fitting  to  look  not  only  at  what 
women  may  be  expected  to  do  when  they  have  gained  full 
political  rights,  but  at  what  they  actually  have  done  in  the 
use  of  political  weapons  and  the  exhibition  of  political  wis- 
dom. 

I  have  watched  with  unflagging  interest,  with  such  intelli- 
gence as  was  vouchsafed  me,  and  from  what  vantage  ground 
I  could  command,  every  phase  of  the  movement  that  came 
within  the  sphere  of  my  observation.  That  movement  has 
advanced  from  weak  and  despised  beginnings  to  a  point 
where  it  is  discussed  with  seriousness,  recognized  by  par- 
ties, deferred  to  by  leaders,  and  acknowledged  in  some  quar- 
ters as  a  not  very  remote  future  possibility. 


and  Worthlcssness.  193 

From  this  careful  observation  of  its  course  thus  far,  I  can 
not  see  that  any  thing  in  its  treatment  of  difficult  questfons, 
or  in  its  conduct  of  delicate  affairs — in  the  ends  which  it  pro- 
poses, the  methods  which  it  selects  to  accomplish  those  ends, 
or  the  manner  in  which  it  pursues  those  methods — gives  us 
the  smallest  prospect  of  an  introduction  to  a  higher  grade 
of  political  life  than  that  which  we  are  already  occupying  un- 
der the  dynasty  of  man.  )  I  fail  to  see  that  it  is  more  com- 
prehensive in  vision,  more  inexhaustible  in  research,  more 
radical  in  thought,  more  scientific  in  method,  more  conscien- 
tious in  action ;  that  in  discussion  it  is  more  sober,  candid, 
just,  and  courteous ;  that  it  displays  more  information  and 
less  inflammation,  more  of  philosophy  and  less  of  personal- 
ity ;  that  it  is  more  accurate  in  presentation,  and  more  con- 
scientious against  misrepresentation  ;  that  it  is  more  judi- 
cious in  the  selection  of  agents ;  that  it  appeals  to  higher 
motives,  or  teaches  a  wiser  mode,  or  points  to  a  wider  field 
of  activity.  It  appears  to  me,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  wom- 
an's party  copies  with  singular  fidelity  the  old  ways  of  the 
old  parties,  which  ought  never  to  have  been  entered  at  all. 
Women,  so  far  as  they  are  already  in  politics,  are  doing  right 
over  again,  and  often  with  a  peculiar  feminine  facility,  the 
very  things  which  have  been  done  by  men,  and  which  ought 
never  to  be  done  at  all,  while  1  have  not  been  able  to  dis- 
cern the  introduction  by  them  of  a  single  improvement  or 
sign  of  improvement  in  political  thought  or  action.;  Univer- 
sal purity^  freedom,  and  happiness  are  indeed  noble  ends  for 
any  party,  but  no  party  in  the  country  confesses  or  profess- 
es any  other  ends.  When  we  look  at  the  means  by  which 
the  woman's  party  proposes  to  reach  the  desired  results,  we 
find  that  they  are  either  general,  and,  therefore,  practically 
worthless,  or  specific,  but  empirical,  and  often  worse  than 
worthless,  or  they  are  the  same  means  which  men  have  been 
employing  and  are  continuing  to  employ.     This  has  nothing 

I 


194  IVo.Jian's  Worth 

whatever  to  do  with  the  right  of  woman  to  the  ballot.  A 
man  is  not  forbidden  to  cast  his  vote  because  he  casts  it  for 
the  wrong  person  or  the  wrong  measure  ;  no  more  should  a 
woman  be.  But  when  the  vote  of  women  is  urged  upon  the 
nation  as  its  means  of  grace  and  hope  of  glory,  it  is  requisite 
and  necessary  to  infer  somewhat  from  such  preliminary 
grace  and  glory  as  have  been  displayed.  If  the  dawn  is 
darkness,  why  shall  we  suppose  that  at  evening  time  it  shall 
be  light  t 

Nor  do  these  statements,  if  admitted  to  be  true,  involve 
the  inferiority  of  woman  to  man.  It  does  not  imply  inferi- 
ority to  fail  where  he  has  not  succeeded.  It  simply  indi- 
cates that  at  present  she  is  not  politically  his  superior.  It 
dismisses  again  to  the  domain  of  abstract  reasoning  the  idea 
that  government  and  society  are  to  be  uplifted  by  the  direct 
professional  participation  of  woman  in  politics,  and  leaves  it 
with  presumptive  evidence  against  it. 

"  If  women  were  allowed  to  vote,  hold  office,  and  make 
laws,  they  would  be  the  means  of  purifying  politics  and  ele- 
vating the  standard  of  morality  among  our  officers  and  rep- 
resentatives ;  and  we  should,  therefore,  have  better  laws,  and 
criminals  would  not  be  so  often  permitted  to  escape  their 
just  punishment." 

So  says  a  female  suffiage  newspaper ;  and  I  ask  for  a 
sign,  unbelieving  Jew  that  I  am,  and  read  on  eagerly  through 
a  column  or  more  describing  the  defects  and  declaiming 
upon  the  disasters  of  our  present  laws,  till  I  come  to  the 
conclusion  ©f  the  whole  matter  in  the  final  paragraph : 

"  When  women  are  permitted  to  vote,  they  will  not  be  long 
in  changing  the  unjust  and  tyrannical  laws  which  men  have 
made  for  them,  and  we  may  confidently  expect  that  they  will 
soon  find  some  way  to  prevent  intemperance  and  the  sale 
of  poisonous  liquors,  to  shut  up  gaming-houses,  and  will 
prove  that  the  arm  of  the  law  can  be  made  powerful  enough 
to  overthrow  even  the  social  evil  itself.  .  .  .  And  our  legis- 


and  Worthies sness.  195 

lative  halls  will  not  so  often  behold  such  disgraceful  scenes 
as  at  present,  and  our  representatives  will  be  obliged  to  be 
more  dignified  and  more  alive  to  the  duties  which  they  are 
sent  to  perform." 

Certainly  the  absolute  and  speedy  prevention  of  the  three 
great  vices  of  society  is  worth  forming  a  new  party  for.  No 
one  will  deny  that  the  rapid  success  of  women  in  bringing 
about  a  millennium  which  men  have  been  trying  and  failing 
to  bring  for  centuries  would  be  a  victory  brilliant  enough  to 
justify  all  their  eagerness  to  share  in  the  fray. 

But  when  we  ask  the  plan  of  the  campaign,  we  find  nothv 
ing  but  glittering  and  sounding  generalities.  All  these  de- 
sirable things  are  to  be  done,  and  done  soon,  but  the  only 
way  in  which  they  are  to  be  done  is — some  way  !  Appe- 
tites, habits  which  have  hitherto  baffled  legislation,  despised 
affection,  defied  religion,  are  to  be  speedily  overthrown, 
and  prevented  from  further  encroachments,  in  some  way. 
The  incredulous  must  be  pardoned  if  they  withhold  their 
faith  until  that  way  is  more  definitely  marked  out. 

Another  organ  of  the  same  party  is  sufficiently  specific, 
and  affirms : 

"  It  will  be  understood  that  we  are  a  unit  to  help  elect  in 
every  town  the  man  who  is  our  friend ;  to  help  defeat  in  ev- 
ery town  the  man  who  is  indifferent.  Soon  no  man  who  is 
not  our  friend  will  stand  a  chance  of  nomination.  George 
William  Curtis  says, '  Behind  every  demand  for  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  suffrage  hitherto  there  was  always  a  threat.'  It 
will  be  so  in  the  present  case.  Our  threat  must  be  an  act- 
ive, determined  organization,  in  dead  earnest  to  dig  a  polit- 
ical grave  for  every  man  who  opposes  the  enfranchisement 
of  the  women  of  Massachusetts." 

The  party,  it  seems,  will  follow  the  simple  standard  of  that 
fine  old  English  gentleman  who  classifies  his  acquaintance 
by  one  rule  :  "  D — d  scoundrel,  sir ;  he  is  opposed  to  me  !" 
or, "  First-rate  fellow,  Smith  ;  he  is  my  friend  !"     It  does  not 


196  WomatCs  Worth 

question  a  man's  principles  or  character.  It  is  enough  that 
he  be  "our  friend."  However  stainless  and  able  he  may 
have  proved  himself,  however  well  he  may  have  wrought  for 
his  country  in  the  service  of  truth,  freedom,  and  honor,  he 
shall  give  way  to  any  charlatan  who  may  choose  to  ride  into 
office  on  the  hobby  of  woman  suffrage,  and  who  is  perfectly 
indifferent  on  what  he  rides,  so  he  rides  in. 

And  is  there  not  shown,  in  the  construction  put  upon  Mr. 
Curtis's  words,  an  entire  failure  to  comprehend  their  real 
scope  ?  What  sort  of  threat  is  it  that  has  lain  hitherto  be- 
hind every  demand  for  the  enlargement  of  the  suffrage  ?  In 
recovering  from  our  late  civil  war  we  were  sore  pressed. 
On  the  one  side  was  the  danger  of  putting  the  ballot  into 
the  hands  of  an  ignorant  and  inexperienced  class,  out  of 
whom  intelligence,  integrity,  straightforwardness,  independ- 
ence had  been  well-nigh  crushed  by  generations  of  slavery. 
On  the  other  side  were  the  ranks  just  conquered  in  rebel- 
lion, whose  monopoly  of  the  vote  would  be  likely  to  betray 
the  newly-won  states  into  the  hands  from  which  they  had 
been  so  hardly  wrested.  The  danger  from  disloyalty  seem- 
ed more  imminent  than  the  danger  from  ignorance,  and 
emancipated  slaves  were  intrusted  with  the  suffrage.  Dis- 
aster to  the  nation  was  the  threat  which  lay  behind  the  de- 
mand for  negro  suffrage — a  demand  made  not  so  much  by 
the  negroes  themselves  as  by  the  nation  which  incurred  the 
risk.  The  threats  which  have  induced  England  to  enlarge 
her  suffrage  have  in  like  manner  concerned  the  public  safe- 
ty. A  strong  and  resolute  populace  has  made  its  wishes 
felt.  Armed  mobs  have  alarmed  the  custodians  of  the  na- 
tioa  Tumult,  and  violence,  and  quiet,  fierce  determina- 
tion, and  despair  born  of  suffering,  have  menaced  the  whole 
fabric  of  society,  till  old  power  recognized  new  power,  and 
granted  it  self-direction  in  self-defense — relinquished  a  part 
of  its  prerogative  to  retain  its  continued  existence. 


and  Worthies S7iess.  197 

But  our  threat  has  nothing  to  do  with  national  danger  ot 
national  honor.  No  pillar  of  society  seems  about  to  give 
way,  no  foundation-stone  rocks  in  its  place.  Our  threat  is 
a  political  grave  for  our  opponents.  Our  threat  is  loss  of 
place  to  some  office-holder  or  disappointment  to  some  office- 
seeker  ! 

What  is  this  but  an  appeal  to  the  lowest  personal  ambi- 
tion of  the  lowest  political  hacks  ?  How  will  such  an  argu- 
ment be  likely  to  purify  politics  and  put  better  men  in  au- 
thority? Are  these  considerations  calculated  to  induce 
men  to  seek  the  truth,  and  let  all  the  ends  they  aim  at  be 
their  country's }  What  sort  of  politician  would  probably 
be  evolved  from  the  man  who  would  form  his  opinion  and 
shape  his  action  under  the  influence  of  such  a  threat  ?  Must 
not  the  result  be  that,  while  any  real  thinker,  high-minded 
and  clear-sighted,  would  stand  unmoved,  or  moved  possi- 
bly into  an  antagonistic  position,  the  demagogue,  ambitious 
and  unscrupulous,  would  hasten  to  lay  hold  of  so  easy  a 
help  over  hard  places,  and  use  it  vigorously  for  his  own 
aggrandizement  t  Are  politics  to  be  purified  by  a  mode  of 
operation  which  have  a  tendency  to  exclude  the  men  of 
careful  and  conscientious  thought  and  exact  speech,  and 
attract  those  whose  opinions  arise  from  consequences  rath- 
er than  evidence,  and  who  are  ready  to  become  all  things  to 
all  men  if  by  any  means  they  may  gain  office  for  them- 
selves ? 

After  all,  is  there  not  a  touch  of  grotesqueness  in  the  sit- 
uation ?  A  cause  in  search  of  a  danger  wherewith  to  re-en- 
force its  ranks  must  be  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms  when  to 
past  national  peril  of  the  gravest  moment  it  parallels  the  am- 
bition of  the  virtuous  citizen  to  be  sent  to  general  court  or  to 
be  made  a  city  alderman.  Even  a  non-election  to  the  gov- 
ernorship or  a  defeat  for  Congress  is  hardly  to  be  compared 
to  the  rehabilitation  of  slavery  or  a  forced  return  to  anarchy. 


198  Woman^s  Worth 

There  is  perhaps  no  question  of  public  interest  on  which 
the  woman's  vote  promises  more  direct  improvement  than 
the  question  of  the  prohibition  or  regulation  of  the  sale  of 
liquor.  It  is  a  point  that  has  been  debated  for  years,  has 
been  legislated  upon  with  appalling  frequency,  and  seems 
yet  further  from  settlement  than  when  the  Maine  Liquor 
Law  was  supposed  to  have  exorcised  the  evil  spirit  forever. 
Let  women  vote,  we  are  assured,  and  the  matter  will  be 
speedily  and  permanently  arranged.  This  would  be  a  boon 
indeed ;  for  a  perpetual  settlement — that  is,  a  real  settle- 
ment— can  be  only  upon  the  right  foundation  ;  otherwise 
there  is  no  settlement  at  all,  but  temporary  adjustment,  re- 
newed upheaval,  and  constant  unrest.  Have  men  been 
bungling  over  it  with  ignorant  heads  and  unskillful  hands 
all  these  years  ?     ^^ Place  aiix  dames ." 

"  I  am  convinced,"  says  the  Woman's  Organ,  "  that  if 
woman's  intuition  and  emotional  force  were  free  to  speak 
through  the  ballot,  this  greatest  crime  of  the  age  [the  liquor 
traffic],  which  is  doing  more  than  all  other  crimes  and  causes 
combined  to  make  woman's  heart  and  home  desolate,  might, 
in  its  commercial  sense,  be  banished  within  ten  years." 

I  confess  I  do  not  precisely  understand  what  is  meant  by 
banishing  this  crime  in  its  commercial  sense ;  but  the  no- 
tion that  a  woman's  vote  can  do  in  ten  years  what  her  voice 
has  failed  to  do  in  ten  thousand  years  seems  to  me  to  ban- 
ish any  suspicion  of  common  sense.  Undoubtedly,  if  you 
appeal  to  the  woman  whose  heart  and  home  have  been  made 
desolate  by  a  drunken  husband,  her  woman's  intuition  would 
speak  with  great  emotional  force,  and  say  that  the  simple 
and  absolute  prevention  of  drunkenness  was  the  entire  sup- 
pression of  the  liquor  traffic.  Without  wine  or  spirit  it  is 
impossible  to  be  drunk.  Forbid  wine  and  spirit  to  be  sold 
or  made,  and  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  drunk- 
enness is  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 


and  Worthiessness.  199 

Nothing  can  be  plainer — not  a  mathematical  axiom,  not 
the  multiplication  table  itself;  and  the  only  wonder  is  that 
we  should  have  waited  so  long,  and  suffered  so  much  in 
mind,  body,  and  estate,  before  discovering  or  applying  a  rem- 
edy so  simple  and  so  accessible.  In  all  the  prognostica- 
tions of  good  to  arise  from  woman's  vote  on  temperance,  I 
have  seen  no  hint  of  any  other  mode  of  action.  Women  set 
their  face  like  a  flint  against  intemperance,  and  they  will 
suppress  it  by  sheer  force.  They  forecast  no  plans  to  de- 
stroy a  love  of  liquor,  or  to  increase  self-control  and  self-re- 
spect, but  they  will  simply  make  it  impossible  for  their  hus- 
bands and  fathers  to  buy  liquor. 

When  a  suffering  woman  passionately  advocates  the  burn- 
ing down  of  the  grocery  which  supplies  her  husband  with 
the  bad  rum  that  is  destroying  him  ;  when  a  company  of 
energetic  women,  out  of  patience  with  the  inefficiency  of  the 
laws,  and  with  the  self-indulgence  and  self-destruction  of 
their  husbands,  go  in  a  body  to  the  dram-shop  and  empty 
its  contents  into  the  gutters,  one  is  not  shocked.  Human 
nature  is  not  infinitely  elastic,  and  breaks  if  put  upon  too 
great  a  stretch.  But  when  a  body  of  women,  Vv'ho  are  de- 
manding active  participation  in  political  management  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  wise  laws — when  they  propose  to 
incorporate  this  vigilance  committeeship  into  our  civil  code 
on  the  strength  of  their  intuitions,  one  is  tempted  to  be  im- 
patient. Has  history,  then,  no  lessons  which  women  are 
bound  to  respect.^  I  have  yet  to  see  the  first  evidence  that 
any  woman  who  has  pronounced  judgment  in  this  matter 
has  ever  taken  count  of  any  thing  in  it  except  the  object  to 
be  gained,  and  her  "  noble  purpose"  to  gain  it.  One  would 
'never  suspect  from  the  prohibitory  arguments  used  that  there 
exists  a  vast  and  complex  human  organism,  delicate  but  un- 
conquerable, upon  whose  mysterious  and  unchangeable  laws 
must  be  based  all  measures  for  its  benefit,  or  they  will  comt; 


2  00  Wo??ia?i's  Worth 

to  naught.  One  would  never  suspect  that  for  centuries  hu- 
man wisdom  and  human  benevolence  had  been  studying 
that  organism,  investigating  those  laws,  and,  though  still  far 
from  a  complete  knowledge,  had  arrived  at  some  conclu- 
sions which  can  not  be  overthrown.  Nothing  of  this — not 
even  a  reference,  not  even  a  recognition  that  such  a  state  of 
things  exists — can  I  find  in  the  arguments  of  the  woman 
party.  It  is  true  that  many  men  are  equally  innocent  in 
regard  to  it,  but  women  are  coming  into  politics  to  supply 
the  deficiencies  of  men.  What  if  they  only  increase  the 
bulk  by  adding  to  them  their  own }  If  a  cause  is  beset  with 
danger  because  it  lies  on  the  exact  boundary-line  between 
individual  liberty  and  public  safety,  and  because  the  evil  that 
threatens  on  one  side  is  immediate  and  obvious,  while  the 
evil  that  threatens  on  the  other  is  remote,  unseen,  far-reach- 
ing, are  we  any  thing  helped  by  never  so  great  re-enforce- 
ments of  pure  but  unthinking  partisans,  who  see  only  the 
obvious  and  never  the  hidden  danger,  only  the  individual 
suffering  and  never  the  individual  inviolability ;  who  have 
not  familiarized  themselves  with  past  experiment  and  past 
effort,  but  throw  themselves  into  battle  for  what  was  long 
ago  lost  just  as  enthusiastically  as  if  the  fight  were  but  this 
day  begun  ?  Intuition  has  undeniably  its  own  field  to  work 
in,  and  a  woman  can  find  ample  use  for  all  that  Heaven  has 
bestowed  upon  her ;  but  to  run  a  political  party  upon  it 
seems  the  very  height  of  intellectual  indolence,  amounting 
almost  to  crime.  Have  not  women  under  the  old  regime 
been  sufficiently  pampered  with  this  pap  ?  Have  not  wom- 
en from  time  immemorial  been  taught  that  brain-work  was 
too  severe  for  their  "  delicate  organization  ;"  that  study  and 
thought  were  for  men  ;  that  they  could  jump  at  all  the  knowl- 
edge that  was  necessary  for  them,  that  necessity  being  re- 
duced to  its  minimum  ;  and  been  taught  it  with  a  result  to 
be  met  in  the  hosts  of  illiterate,  incapable  women  whose  fri- 


and  Worthies  sues s,  201 

volities  and  follies  furnish  a  text  for  every  newspaper  in  the 
land,  and  (more  disastrous  still)  will  enstamp  themselves 
with  unerring  distinctness  on  the  generations  to  which  they 
give  birth  ?  For  those  who  desire  and  design  to  keep  worn 
en  away  from  political  action  and  influence,  it  is  well  enough 
to  enfeeble  and  deteriorate  them  with  the  notion  that  intui- 
tion is  sufficient ;  but  it  is  startling,  indeed,  when  those  who 
are  urging  them  on  preach  the  same  doctrine.  No  man 
would  commit  the  building  of  his  house  to  intuition  or  even 
to  a  keen  moral  sense.  Shall  we  then  commit  to  it  the 
building  of  this  great  national  temple,  under  whose  roof-tree 
alone  can  life,  and  fortune,  and  sacred  honor  find  sanctuary .? 
Masculine  ignorance  lies  in  wait  on  every  hand  to  destroy 
it.  What  shall  we  say  when  womanly  intuition  comes  to  the 
re-enforcement  of  masculine  ignorance .'' 

The  relations  of  labor  and  capital  are  becoming  of  vital 
public  interest.  They  concern  the  happiness,  the  very  ex- 
istence of  thousands  of  homes.  It  is  not  strange  that  the 
question  has  laid  hold  of  politics,  or  that  it  has  attempted 
to  lay  hold  of  legislation.  The  woman  party  has  taken  it 
up  with  an  earnestness  and  a  unanimity  second  only  to 
those  with  which  it  makes  its  first  requisition  upon  the  suf- 
frage. Its  battle-cry  on  labor  is  as  direct  and  simple  as  its 
battle-cry  on  liquor.  All  those  complications  which  for 
years  have  baffled  alike  the  political  economist  and  the  prac- 
tical philanthropist  disappear  before  the  talismanic  formula. 
Equal  wages  for  equal  work.  Nobody  is  disturbed  by  any 
question  as  to  what  constitutes  equality  of  work,  or  whether 
quality  or  equality  be  the  more  important.  Nobody  troubles 
himself  or  herself  by  any  irrelevant  conjectures  about  de- 
mand and  supply.  All  is  as  plain  as  the  sun  in  the  sky. 
Give  to  woman  the  ballot,  and  no  longer  shall  the  grammar- 
school-master  have  thirteen  hundred  dollars  a  year,  while 
the  grammar-school-mistress  has  five  hundred  dollars ;  but 

I  2 


202  Woman's  Worth 

the  lion  and  the  lamb  shall  have  the  self-same  salary.  Give 
to  woman  the  ballot  (I  have  never  heard  this  said ;  but,  of 
course,  it  naturally  follows,  and  is  as  certainly  meant) — give 
to  woman  the  ballot,  and  no  longer  shall  Bridget  receive  her 
three  dollars  a  week,  while  Patrick  has  two  dollars  a  day ; 
but  Bridget  and  Patrick  alike  shall  be  paid  their  fifty  dollars 
a  month.  How  the  ballot  is  to  accomplish  this  we  are  not 
yet  informed.  No  one  has  definitely  mapped  out  this  Prom- 
ised Land ;  but  we  are  fervidly  assured  it  is  there,  albeit 
just  beyond  our  secular  vision. (^  One  female  writer,  rebuk- 
ing the  hard-heartedness  of  those  who  coldly  point  out  wait- 
ing work  to  suffering  women,  gives  us  her  more  excellent 
way.  I  quote  from  memory  her  indignant  assurance,  that 
when  a  woman,  poor  and  unoccupied,  came  to  her  with  her 
sad  story,  "  I  did  not  point  her  to  my  kitchen.  I  threw  my 
arms  around  her  neck  and  wept  with  her."  But  whether 
this  mode  of  relief  is  permanent  and  efiicacious,  whether  it  is 
susceptible  of  incorporation  into  our  civil  code,  or  of  wide 
introduction  into  our  political  system,  may  admit  of  doubt. 
In  spite  of  special  cases,  there  is  at  present  small  reason  to 
believe  that  the  time  will  ever  come  when  laborers  in  gen- 
eral will  combine  and  cry  rather  than  "  strike,"  and  capital- 
ists will  hug  instead  of  resisting.  ^. 

But  hugging  or  haggling  is  a  pofnt  of  local  and  tempo- 
rary interest.  The  real  gist  of  the  debate  touches  a  darker 
depth  than  this.  There  is  a  dangerous  element  in  the  dis- 
cussion to  which  women  are  but  adding  strength. 

Masculine  ignorance,  plastic  in  the  hands  of  partisan  am- 
bition, breathes  covert  or  open  threats  of  violence  ;  in  a  free 
country  does  not  disdain  to  use  force  against  its  fellows, 
and  does  not  see  that  it  is  arousing  for  the  laborer  his  most 
formidable  foe.  It  implores  the  interference  of  legislation, 
not  discerning  that  the  immediate  good  it  craves  would, 
even  if  obtained,  be  a  thousand  times  overbalanced  by  the 


and  Worthlessness.  203 

evil  of  bringing  legislation  into  the  field.  And  at  this  crisis, 
when  it  needs  all  the  resources  of  culture  and  patriotism  to 
steady  affairs  ;  at  this  crisis,  when  it  is  alnnost  a  crime  for 
an  educated  person  to  couple  legislation  and  labor  ;  at  this 
crisis  our  emotional  woman  comes  rushing  into  the  fray,  and 
demands  the  ballot  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  equal  wages 
for  equal  work.  That  no  one  explains  how  the  ballot  is  to 
adjust  matters  signifies  nothing.  The  fatality  lies  in  ap- 
pealing to  the  ballot  for  adjustment.  It  is  the  resource  of 
ignorance  and  narrowness.     It  is  the  resource  of  women. 

There  are  many  other  matters  of  national  and  interna- 
tional concern  which  the  leaders  of  the  woman  party  have 
touched  lightly,  if  at  all.  These  are  the  only  two  promi- 
nent political  questions  on  which  their  future  action  is  plain- 
ly foreshadowed.  It  was  not,  indeed,  indispensable  that 
they  should  do  so  much.  They  might  have  fought  the  bat- 
tle out  on  general  principles,  if  they  had  so  chosen.  If  a 
man  or  a  woman  has  a  right  to  act,  he  shall  not  be  forced 
to  say  how  he  will  act  before  he  exercises  that  right.  But 
as  the  leaders  of  the  woman  party  have  of  their  own  free 
will  announced  their  intended  course,  we,  the  people  most 
concerned,  may  pronounce  judgment  upon  it.  That  their 
discussions  and  decisions  have  helped  to  swell  the  flood  of 
ignorance,  passion,  and  unreason  which  already  menace  us 
with  a  serious  danger  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  evil.  It  is 
not  so  much  that  any  special  advocacy  is  unwise — it  is  that 
they  advocate  on  a  false  ground.  It  is  not  so  much  that 
they  may  emotionally  vote  wrong — it  is  that  they  assume 
in  entire  good  faith  that  womanly  intuition  and  emotional 
force  are  an  admirable  basis  on  which  to  exercise  the  right 
of  suffrage.  They  exhibit  no  perception  of  the  fact  that  it 
is  because  women  have  counted  their  intuitions  and  their 
emotions  as  their  sole  capital  that  they  are  so  weak,  in- 
sipid, and  uninfluentiaj,  as  we  too  often  find  them.     "When 


204  Woman  s  Wo^th 

women  of  pure  character  and  noble  purpose,''  they  say,  "par- 
ticipate in  practical  political  campaigns,  a  great  step  will  be 
made  toward  enlisting  public  sympathy  in  behalf  of  the  dis- 
franchised sex."  They  seem  not  to  discern  that  pure  char- 
acter and  noble  purpose,  though  indispensable,  are  insuffi- 
cient, and  fatally  insufficient ;  that  a  pure  and  noble-pur- 
posed woman  may  do  her  cause  and  country  as  much  harm 
as  a  bad  man.  Instead  of  endeavoring  to  strengthen  wom- 
an on  her  weak  side,  they  rather  apotheosize  her  weakness 
as  the  true  strength.  She  is  not  exhorted  to  bulwark  her 
intuitions  with  reasons,  to  correct  her  emotions  by  judgment, 
but  simply  to  crystallize  both  into  laws.  Indeed,  one  of  the 
leaders,  in  addressing  the  members  of  a  Republican  Con- 
vention, whom  she  "  supposed  to  be  above  the  ordinary  level 
of  the  Republican  party  and  men  of  political  sagacity,"  frank- 
ly avowed  that  she  never  liked  to  speak  simply  to  political 
sagacity.  The  cause  which  she  had  to  present  was  just, 
and  that  was  enough.  "  Simply  to  political  sagacity."  Are 
women  going  into  politics,  then,  with  political  insagacity  for 
a  weapon  and  a  watchv/ord  ?  It  must  be  the  one  or  the 
other.  There  is  no  middle  ground.  Is  it  enough  that  our 
cause  is  just?  Rather,  it  is  notoriously  not  enough.  All 
things  are  lawful  unto  me,  but  all  things  are  not  expedient. 
Perhaps  no  great  battle  was  ever  won  on  the  ground  of 
simple  justice.  A  system  of  laws  is  a  system  of  checks, 
and  balances,  and  averages,  of  the  nicest  and  closest  calcu- 
lations. The  engineering  of  a  great  party,  the  existence  of 
a  party,  demands  the  utmost  political  sagacity — a  sagacity 
which  strikes  every  note  of  human  nature,  from  the  highest 
mental  perception  to  the  lowest  emotional  force.  Paying 
all  reverence,  and  most  eagerly  aspiring  to  this  highest,  most 
comprehensive  quality  of  the  statesman,  the  only  one  which 
embraces  within  itself  all  that  is  necessary  to  action,  we 
shall  be  in  no  danger  of  reaching  too  near  perfection.    Hu- 


and  Wortncessness.  205 

man  nature  is  pretty  sure  to  fall  short,  even  if  its  standard 
be  high  ;  but  the  party  that  sets  out  with  contempt  for  it, 
the  party  that  proposes  to  dispense  with  it,  and  vote  the 
straight-out  womanly -intuition -and -emotion  ticket,  must 
have  exceptional  luck,  indeed,  to  conduct  this  great  nation 
with  safety  and  honor  along  its  tortuous  and  intricate  path. 


2o6  IVoma/i's  Worth 


XII. 
PRESS -WORK. 

There  is  one  department  of  political  action,  not  least 
in  importance  or  opportunity,  which  is  easily  accessible  to 
women,  which  they  have  already  entered,  and  in  which  they 
occupy  no  inconsiderable  or  inconspicuous  ground.  I  refer 
to  the  department  of  political  writing — more  definitely  call- 
ed political  correspondence — more  definitely  known,  per- 
haps, as  Washington  correspondence.  In  its  capacity  for 
use  and  abuse,  in  its  opportunity  for  good  and  evil,  it  is 
difficult  to  imagine  a  more  tempting  field  for  the  display  of 
womanly  wisdom,  prudence,  and  purity  in  the  way  of  reform- 
ing influence. 

The  power  which  centres  in  newspapers  is  appalling.  It 
is  as  strong  for  evil  in  the  hands  of  evil  men,  as  it  is  for 
good  in  the  hands  of  good  men  ;  and  evil  men  have  not 
been  slow  to  find  it  out.  It  goes  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
and  brings  to  the  humblest  hearthstone  the  latest  discovery 
of  science,  the  latest  contribution  of  history,  the  latest  com- 
bination of  power.  It  tells  to  the  workman  resting  under 
the  trees  at  midday  how  the  whole  world  fares,  and  in- 
trenches on  visible  and  tangible  ground  the  brotherhood  of 
man.  It  is  ardent  and  eager.  It  rends  the  veil  from  hy- 
pocrisy, it  voices  the  general  conscience,  it  opens  to  thor- 
ough and  wholesome  discussion  all  plans  and  plots  tiiat 
concern  society.  But,  unhappily,  it  is  also  reckless,  re- 
vengeful, dishonest.  It  is  careles  of  truth,  and  delicacy, 
and  privacy.     It  pries  and  tattles.     It  corrupts  the  taste, 


and  Worihlessness.  207 

and  vulgarizes  the  manners.  It  makes  and  mars  reputa- 
tions for  personal  or  partisan  ends,  or  from  the  mere  com- 
mercial value  of  scandal  and  "  sensation."  It  uses  its  pow- 
er for  a  menace,  and  its  opportunity  for  a  stab.  It  has  even 
descended  to  minister  to  the  vanity  of  the  vainest,  to  the 
weakness  of  the  weakest,  and  to  degrade  intelligence  to 
drivel. 

Let  me  give  one  or  two  examples — not  to  prove,  but  to 
illustrate.  I  shall  take  them  not  from  such  newspapers  as 
strike  their  roots  in  wickedness  and  feed  on  iniquity.  There 
are  such,  but  they  are  generally  well  known  ;  they  are  not 
quoted  as  authority,  and  their  opinions  have  little  weight.  I 
select  the  newspaper  which  is,  perhaps,  in  all  the  country, 
the  most  calm  in  advocacy,  the  most  judicial  in  tone  ;  which 
assumes  and  appears  to  be  moderate,  courteous,  far-sighted, 
above  the  heat  of  the  hour,  and  deaf  to  the  clamor  of  party. 
Certainly  no  paper  has  been  more  forward  to  emphasize  the 
importance  of  accuracy,  to  denounce  violation  of  courtesy, 
looseness  of  statement,  and  disregard  of  individual  rights. 
It  has  been  steadfast  in  enunciating  correct  principles,  and, 
if  it  be  not  high-minded,  truthful,  and  honorable,  it  is  Peck- 
sniffian  to  the  last  degree.  Yet  in  such  a  paper  as  this  one 
may  read  the  following  paragraph : 

"  To  THE  Editor  of  the : 

"  Sir, — A  writer  in  your  last  week's  issue speaks 

by  name  of  three  leading  railroad  men,  of  whom  Mr.  A.  B.  C. 
is  one,  and  characterizes  them  as  '  avaricious,  unscrupulous, 
often  dishonest,  and  always  unreliable.'  As  one  who  has 
had  some  opportunities  of  knowledge  on  the  subject,  I  beg 
to  say,  in  behalf  of  Mr.  A,  B.  C,  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
private  character  or  public  record  of  that  gentleman  to  war- 
rant a  paper  like  the  in  affixing  to  his  name  such 

damaging  epithets." 

Then  comes  the  editorial  statement : 

"  The  charges  are  certainly  such  as  should  not  be  made 


2o8  WomarCs  Worth 

against  any  body  unless  supported  by  specifications,  and  we 
regret  their  appearance,  which  was  due  to  an  oversight." 

I  do  not  know  how,  in  so  small  a  space,  a  greater  public 
and  personal  wrong  could  be  perpetrated.  An  editor  uses 
his  paper  to  proclaim  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  that 
a  certain  man  is  habitually  a  liar,  and  occasionally  a  thief; 
and,  being  confronted  with  a  denial  of  his  statement,  neither 
proves  nor  retracts  it,  but  quietly  "  regrets"  that  he  made  it ! 
More  than  this,  the  "  regret"  is  so  framed  as  to  leave  an  im- 
pression on  the  mind  of  the  reader  that,  after  all,  the  charge 
may  be  true. 

A  man  might  just  as  well  "  regret"  that  he  had  slain  his 
neighbor  as  that  he  had  thus  attempted  to  slay  his  good 
name.  What  shall  he  do?  Stand  in  the  pillory  an  hour 
every  day  for  a  month,  with  a  rope  around  his  neck,  and 
proclaim  to  the  assembled  crowds,  "  I  am  the  man  who,  with 
a  full  knowledge  of  the  greatness  of  the  crime,  bore  false 
witness  against  my  neighbor."  "  False,"  because  a  man 
who  asserts  what  he  does  not  know  to  be  true  is  radically 
as  untruthful  as  he  who  asserts  what  he  knows  to  be  false. 
This  first ;  then,  having  thus  robbed  a  man  of  honor,  he 
should  immediately  investigate  the  matter,  at  whatever  per- 
sonal inconvenience  to  himself,  and  either  prove  that  the 
man  was  justly  dishonored,  or  reinvest  him  with  integrity  in 
the  most  explicit  manner. 

The  same  paper  says  again  : 

"When  we  read  from  time  to  time  in  the  papers  that 
Mr.  B.  was  associating  with  German  scholars,  and  making 
speeches  to  Germans  in  the  German  language,  and  other- 
wise entering  fully,  freely,  and  with  perfect  familiarity  with 
its  ways  and  ideas,  into  German  society,  we  felt  he  was  tres- 
passing a  little  too  far  on  our  patience,  and  we  have  been 
expecting  for  some  time  that  he  would  come  to  grief.  Ac- 
cordingly, we  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  the  proposi- 
tion, which,  we  believe,  emanated  from  him  originally,  and 


and  IVorthlessness.  209 

which  the  President  has  embodied  in  a  message  to  Con- 
gress, to  send  to  the  new  German  Empire  a  mission  of  equal 
rank  with  that  of  Paris  and  London,  will,  if  carried  out  (as  is 
probable),  involve  Mr.  B.'s  retirement  by  involving  the  sup- 
pression of  the  present  Prussian  mission.  The  new  place, 
it  seems,  is  wanted  for  Judge  O. ;  and  he  ought  to  have  it, 
because  he  will  bring  to  its  duties  a  thoroughly  fresh  and 
unbiased  mind,  owing  to  a  thorough  want  of  diplomatic  ex- 
perience, and  a  fair  ignorance  of  the  German  tongue.  He 
will  thus  enter  on  his  duties  without  any  entangling  allian- 
ces or  prejudices,  from  which  Mr.  B.  can  hardly  be  frdfe." 

Here  the  assertion  is  made  in  the  most  offensive  manner 
— that  is,  by  implication,  and  with  a  sneer — that  Judge  O.  is 
unfit  for  the  position  which  is  supposed  to  be  assigned  him, 
by  reason  of  inexperience  and  ignorance.  Diplomatic  inex- 
perience in  a  foreign  service  organized — or,  rather,  unorgan- 
ized— like  ours  means  nothing  whatever  ;  but  what  shall  we 
say  of  this  autocrat  of  all  the  newspapers  when  we  learn  that 
Judge  O.  spoke  the  German  language  exclusively  for  the  first 
fifteen  years  of  his  life,  that  he  still  addresses  crowded  Ger- 
man assemblies  in  their  own  language  with  an  eloquence 
which  arouses  them  to  enthusiasm,  and  at  the  very  moment 
when  this  paragraph  is  pointed  out  to  him  he  holds  in  his 
hand  a  letter  from  a  distinguished  German  scholar,  consult- 
ing him  about  some  delicate  point  of  German  philology ! 

Here  the  editor  uses  his  paper  and  his  commanding  posi- 
tion to  spread  through  the  land  a  statement  which  he  either 
knows  to  be  false  or  does  not  know  to  be  true,  and  draws 
from  it  an  inference  which  the  fullest  establishment  of  the 
fact  would  but  partially  justify.  The  statement  is  somewhat 
prejudicial  to  the  person  concerning  whom  it  is  made,  and 
the  inference  is  extremely  prejudicial  to  the  government  of- 
ficers. It  simply  implies  that  they  choose  their  servants  for 
unfitness,  and  dismiss  a  man  as  soon  as  he  is  discovered  to 
have  peculiar  qualifications  for  his  place.     The  statement  is 


2  10  Woman's  Worth 

untrue,  and  the  inference  falls  to  the  ground.  What,  then, 
becomes  of  the  editor,  who,  by  the  extent  of  his  knowledge, 
the  soundness  of  his  views,  the  wholesomeness  of  his  incul- 
cations, and  the  grossness  of  his  transgressions,  gets  himself 
to  be  esteemed  almost  a  saint,  and  makes  his  own  damna- 
tion sure  ? 

I  have  referred  to  definite  and  demonstrable  untruths, 
circulated  by  a  leading  newspaper  as  truths,  to  the  great 
detriment  of  individuals.  I  will  mention  one  or  two  exam- 
ples of  a  more  common,  more  general,  but  equally  mislead- 
ing mode  of  statement. 

In  the  same  paper  occurs  the  following  paragraph : 

"We  have  no  wish  to  depreciate  Congress  unduly.  We 
have  no  doubt  its  desire  to  do  right  is  g<^nerally  underrated 
by  the  newspapers ;  but  nobody  claims  for  the  great  body 
of  the  members  familiarity  with  financial  history  or  political 
economy.  There  is  nobody,  too,  who  has  ever  attempted  to 
master  these  subjects,  or  who  knows  any  thing  of  the  lives 
of  the  great  explorers  of  these  fields  of  political  science,  who 
is  not  aware  that  proficiency  in  them  is  only  to  be  bought 
by  years  of  laborious  study  and  constant  observation  of  all 
their  phenomena  at  home  and  abroad.  Now,  as  Mr.  K. 
pointed  out  the  other  day  as  the  result  of  his  own  sad  ex- 
perience, members  can  not,  in  the  present  condition  of  the 
civil  service,  give  even  the  smallest  amount  of  serious  atten- 
tion to  the  great  economical  problems  now  before  the  coun- 
\xy.  All  the  time  they  spend  out  of  their  seats  is  devoted 
to  interviews  with  the  worthless  class  who  are  hunting  for 
offices,  or  to  correspondence  with  constituents  on  the  sub- 
ject of"  claims."  They  are,  consequently,  as  helpless  in  the 
presence  of  tariff  speculators  as  a  band  of  untutored  savages 
in  the  presence  of  a  body  of  skilled  riflemen  armed  with  re- 
peaters. And  yet  the  revaluation  of  the  property  and  busi- 
ness of  every  man  in  the  community  is  committed  every 
winter  regularly  to  this  body." 

This  is  an  assertion  which  can  not  be  proved  unless  we 
appoint  a  board  of  examiners  to  question  Congressmen  on 


and  Woj'thlessness.  211 

financial  history  and  political  economy,  and  thus  ascertain 
the  exact  depth  of  their  ignorance.  But,  granting  it  to  be 
true,  it  would  seem  that  a  community  which  year  after  year 
intrusts  its  business  to  men  who  are  not  "  familiar"  with  the 
business,  to  begin  with,  who  are  in  a  situation  where  they 
can  not  give  "even  the  smallest  amount  of  serious  attention 
to  it,"  are  simply  a  constituency  of  fools,  and  are  adequate- 
ly represented  by  a  delegation  of  savages. 

But  the  same  paper,  noticing  in  another  column  a  biog- 
raphy of  a  deceased  member  of  Congress,  gives  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  "  carefulness  and  laborious  industry  with  which 
Mr.  Choate  laid  the  foundations  of  his  fame  and  usefulness" 
"  the  fact  that  when  at  the  age  of  thirty  he  was  elected  to 
Congress,  he  made  a  memorandum  oifacienda  ad  mimns  nu- 
per  impositum,  which  begins  as  follows  : 

"  '  I.  Personal  qualities.  Memory.  Daily  Food  and  Cow- 
per  dum  ambulo.  Voice  ;  manner,  exercitationes  diurnce.  2. 
Current  politics  in  papers — cum  ?iotTilis,  daily.  Geography, 
etc.  "Annual  Register,"  past  Intelligencers.  3.  District: 
Essex  South,  population,  occupations,  modes  of  living,  com- 
merce— the  treaties — and  principles  on  which  it  depends. 
4.  Civil  History  of  the  United  States  in  Pitkin  and  original 
sources.  5.  Examination  of  pending  questions:  Tariff,  Pub- 
lic Lands,  Indians,  Nullification.  6.  American  and  British 
eloquence — writing  practice.'  " 

Then  follow,  says  the  editor,  "more  than  twenty  pages  of 
the  closest  writing,  with  abbreviated  and  condensed  state- 
ments of  results  drawn  from  many  volumes,  newspapers, 
messages,  and  speeches,  with  propositions  and  arguments 
for  and  against,  methodically  arranged  under  topics,  with 
minute  divisions  and  subdivisions ;  as,  for  example,  a  dis- 
cussion under  the  head  of  The  Tariff,'  beginning  with  an 
analysis  of  Hamilton's  report,  made  in  1790,  followed  by  a 
history  of  internal  improvements,  a  statement  of  their  cost, 
a  discussion  of  the  constitutional  power  of  making  them,  and 


212  Women's  Worth 

a  history  of  the  legislation  affecting  them.  A  good  deal  of 
worse  rhetoric  than  Choate's  \vould  be  required  to  overlay 
such  preparation  as  that." 

This  second  paragraph  is  not  a  complete  refutation  of  the 
first.  Doubtless  constituents  and  claims  have  increased 
since  the  days  of  Mr.  Choate,  who  was  probably  not  forced 
to  spend  absolutely  all  his  time  with  worthless  office-hunt- 
ers and  clamorous  constituents,  and  who,  therefore,  might 
have  given  a  very  small  amount  of  serious  attention  to  eco- 
nomical problems  while  he  was  in  Congress.  But,  having 
accepted  the  principle  that  proficiency  in  these  things  is  only 
to  be  bought  by  years  of  laborious  study,  and  constant  ob> 
servation  of  all  their  phenomena  at  home  and  abroad^  it  is 
a  little  confusing  to  hear  the  next  moment  that  a  busy  law- 
yer could  do  any  thing  worthy  of  account  between  the  time 
of  his  election  to  and  his  appearance  in  Congress,  and  that, 
too,  without  leaving  his  own  district !  I  would  suggest,  also, 
that  this  systematic,  industrious,  and  elaborate  preparation 
was  not  known  to  the  world  till  many  years  after  Mr. 
Choate's  death,  and  that  he  was,  perhaps,  the  last  man  of 
whom  such  laborious  preparation  would  have  been  suspect- 
ed. May  not,  therefore,  future  biographies  show  that  some 
of  the  well-meaning  but  helpless  "savages"  now  in  Congress 
are  not  quite  so  "untutored"  as  is  conjectured?  I  am  very 
sure  that  any  member  elect,  male  or  female,  who  shall  enter 
Congress  with  the  expectation  of  finding  a  body  of  men  well 
meaning  and  innocent,  but  ignorant  and  helpless  in  the  pres- 
ence of  tariff  or  any  other  speculaJ;ors,  will  be  far  more  like- 
ly to  come  to  grief  than  he  who  prepares  himself  to  encoun- 
ter such  politicians  as  Mr.  Choate's  training  would  help  to 
form. 

But  his  brother  editors  fare  still  worse  than  Congress  at  the 
hands  of  this  gentleman.  Congress,  for  aught  we  see,  does 
the  best  it  knows  how.     Of  certain  book-notices  he  says  : 


and  Worthies sness.  213 

"  They  are  well  written,  too  ;  and  though,  of  course,  the 
publishers  pay  for  them,  and  they  are  not  in  any  good  sense 
critical,  nor  to  be  relied  upon  by  any  one  who  would  learn 
the  exact  value  of  the  book  noticed,  still  they  can  be  read. 
And  even  they  may  be  profitably  read,  if  the  reader  will  re- 
mind himself  now  and  then  that  they  are  paid  for,  and  are 
eulogistic  and  not  critical.  This,  however,  is  saying  no  more 
against  them  than  may  be  said  against  the  so-called  critical 
notices  which  appear  in  nine  out  of  every  ten  newspapers  in 
the  country.  Most  American  criticism  is  dishonest  criti- 
cism ;  and  the  matter  is  not  at  its  worst,  either,  when  the 
dishonesty  is  the  result  of  our  national  good-nature  or  of  ig- 
norance, for  hardly  a  book  issues  from  the  American  press 
concerning  which  editors  do  not  for  money  say  things  which 
they  know  to  be  false,  and  which  they  mtend  shall  deceive." 

I  can  not  say  whether  or  not  this  is  true.  I  have  never 
seen  it  contradicted.  But,  if  nine  out  often  newspapers  can 
be  hired  by  publishers  to  deceive  their  readers,  there  is  sure- 
ly a  very  loud  call  for  the  purification  of  the  press  as  well 
as  the  purification  of  politics. 

So  much  for  the  world  and  the  flesh.  Hear  now  what  a 
doctor  of  divinity  sa37s  in  the  columns  of  a  religious  news- 
paper: 

"  And  now,  standing  by  his  grave,  I  desire,  in  the  most 
public  and  unreserved  manner,  to  retract  an  unwarrantable 
criticism  upon  the  personal  character  of  Mr.  Dickens  made 
by  me  in  the  first  number  of  the  New  Englander.  The  rath- 
er crude  estimate  there  made  of  his  literary  ability  and  his 
then  published  works  (it  was  almost  thirty  years  ago)  may 
stand  for  better  or  worse,  according  to  the  test  of  time.  But, 
roused  by  the  popular  indignation  at  his  'American  Notes,' 
and  misled  by  some  expressions  in  that  work,  and  by  exag 
gerated  rumors  touching  his  personal  habits,  I  was  betrayed 
into  the  representation  that  he  drank  to  excess.  I  do  not 
now  believe  that  such  a  charge  was  then  warranted,  nor  that 
it  has  been  warranted  by  any  thing  in  his  subsequent  life. 
And  1  have  come  also  to  recognize  in  him  a  deeper  soul  of 
truth  and  goodness,  and  a  nobler,  purer  sympathy  with  what 
b  highest  and  best,  than  I  then  gave  him  credit  for. 


214  Woman's  Worth 

"  I  might  well  believe  that  nobody  of  late  years  has  read 
that  article,  and  that  nobody  who  read  it  at  the  time  remem- 
bers or  cares  about  it  now  ;  but  when  the  news  of  his  death 
came,  recalling  how  much  of  enjoyment  and  quickening  I 
owed  to  Mr.  Dickens,  I  took  down  the  volume  and  read  it 
with  a  tingling  regret.  It  is  of  no  account  to  him,  and  of 
very  little  to  any  body  else  ;  but  when  the  invisible  stone- 
cutter shall  mark  the  next  name  to  be  registered  for  the 
grave,  I  should  be  unwilling  to  pass  out  of  the  world  with 
the  feeling  that  I  had  done  any  man  an  injustice,  however 
unwittingly,  for  which  I  had  not  made  the  fullest  atonement 
and  reparation.  'And  so,'  as  Tiny  Tim  said, '  God  bless  us 
all.'" 

I  have  no  tenderness  for  Mr.  Dickens.  I  do  not  believe 
in  his  deep  soul  of  truth  and  goodness,  or  in  his  noble  and 
pure  sympathy  with  what  is  highest  and  best.  "  I  desire,  in 
the  most  public  and  unreserved  manner,"  to  declare  that  a 
regiment  of  little  Nells  and  Tiny  Tims  can  not  redeem  the 
man  who  publicly  dishonors  the  mother  of  his  many  chil- 
dren. Mr.  Dickens,  holding  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer,  told 
his  story  glibly  to  the  world.  Mrs.  Dickens,  suffering  the 
deepest  wound  a  woman  can  know,  has  remained  steadfast- 
ly silent.  The  wife's  silence  is  full  of  dignity  ;  the  hus- 
band's speech  bristles  with  disgrace.  He  feels  no  shame 
in  saying  that  he  lived  with  a  woman  as  his  wife,  exacting 
from  her  all  the  duties  and  enforcing  all  the  sufferings  of  a 
wife,  until  he  had  consumed  the  vigor  of  her  youth,  and 
then  turned  her  away,  and  announces  to  the  world  that  she 
was  unfit  for  him  !  He  feels  no  shame  in  saying  virtually 
that,  while  this  woman  was  living  in  his  house  as  his  wife, 
another  woman  was  also  in  his  house,  holding  in  regard 
both  to  himself  and  his  children  a  position  which  belonged 
to  the  legal  wife  and  mother.  England  is  beating  her  ob- 
stinate head  against  marriage  with  a  deceased  wife's  sister, 
but  here  it  is  a  living  wife's  sister  superseding  the  living 
wife.     It  was  Mr.  Dickens  himself  who  made  this  public 


and  Worihldssness.  215 

property.  By  his  last  will  and  testament  he  even  stretched 
his  dead  hand  out  of  the  grave  to  injure  his  discarded  wife; 
and  neither  in  this  world,  nor  the  next,  nor  the  world  after 
the  next,  shall  a  man  escape  the  cordial  hatred  of  at  least 
one  heart  for  such  coarse  and  shameless  selfishness. 

But  our  doctor  of  divinity  is  moved  by  none  of  these 
things.  Thirty  years  ago  people  were  very  angry  with  Mr. 
Dickens ;  and,  on  the  strength  of  some  ambiguous  expres- 
sions and  exaggerated  rumors,  this  clergyman  spread  abroad 
the  printed  report  that  he  was  a  drunkard.  Now  people 
are  very  fond  of  Mr.  Dickens  ;  and  the  clergyman  says  he 
is  not  a  drunkard,  and  never  was,  and  thinks  he  has  per- 
formed  the  whole  duty  of  man.  For  thirty  years  I  have  to 
fight  against  the  assertion  made  by  the  religious  press  that 
I  am  addicted  to  a  beastly  vice,  and,  having  fought  it  suc- 
cessfully, and  won  my  way,  the  religious  press  stands  by  my 
grave  and  says  I  never  was  guilty,  and  thinks  it  has  made 
the  fullest  atonement  and  reparation,  let  alone  magnanim- 
ity. 

I  do  not  know  much  about  original  sin  or  total  depravity, 
the  Trinity,  atonement,  or  justification  by  faith.  I  believe 
them  all ;  but  when  it  comes  to  understanding  them  as  you 
understand  the  multiplication  table,  or  a  friend's  letter,  I  am 
free  to  confess  that  I  do  not  really  understand  one  word  of 
it.  But  I  do  perfectly  understand  that  the  man  who  reck- 
lessly, revengefully,  publicly,  for  any  purpose  whatever,  bears 
false  witness  against  his  neighbor,  is  originally  sinful,  totally 
depraved,  and  will  never  be  justified  by  any  faith ;  that  a 
legislative  assembly  ignorant  of  its  business,  and  unable  to 
give  the  smallest  amount  of  serious  attention  to  it,  is  the 
sign  of  a  country  ripe  for  revolution,  and  can  scarcely  be 
saved  by  a  newspaper  press  nine  tenths  of  which  is  in  the 
market  for  sale  to  the  highest  bidder. 

Now  then,  again,  Place  aux  dames  I 


2i6  Woman's  Worth 

The  columns  of  the  newspapers  are  as  widel}  and  as  fully 
open  to  woman  as  to  man.  Neither  publisher  nor  editor 
cares  for  the  sex  of  a  writer.  The  possession  of  the  ballot 
could  not  give  to  woman  any  greater  freedom  to  print  her 
opinions  on  politics,  religion,  manners,  or  morals,  and  the 
extent  of  such  influence  is  immeasurable.  It  can  not  be 
otherwise  than  that  her  defective  education  and  her  limited 
experience  should  be  seen  here,  and  we  have  no  right  to  ex- 
pect the  breadth  of  thought  or  vigor  of  style  which  come 
only  from  4ong  training.  But  we  may  expect  to  see  that 
"  refining,  ennobling  element  wanted  in  politics,  that  wom- 
an's finer  nature,  intuitive  perception,  and  aptness  for  moral 
truth  can  alone  supply  ;"  that  "  innate  refinement"  which  is 
to  "give  to  ambition  a  more  elevated  object  than  mere  love 
of  power."  There  is  no  reason  why  the  greater  conscien- 
tiousness, accuracy,  modesty,  peaceableness,  unselfishness 
— the  charity  which  thinketh  no  evil,  the  sensitiveness  which 
forbids  to  ascribe  bad  motives,  the  instinctive  sagacity  which 
impels  wise  choice,  qualities  which  have  long  been  conceded 
to  women,  and  which  are  to  purify  and  elevate  politics — 
there  is  no  reason  why  all  these  should  not  have  free  course 
to  run  and  be  glorified  in  the  columns  of  the  political  or  so< 
cial  newspaper. 

I  take  up  a  copy  of  that  which  is  spoken  of  as  the  most 
lively,  vigorous,  and  able  of  the  woman  papers,  and  find  it 
offering  itself  as  a  "great  organ  of  popular  thought  and  prin- 
ciple, whose  columns  [shall]  be  open  to  the  fullest  and 
freest  expression  of  the  writer's  knowledge  and  conviction 
upon  any  and  all  subjects,  persons,  and  estates." 

Here  surely  is  a  plan  of  operations  comprehensive  enough 
to  meet  illimitable  ambition.  Violation  of  individual  rights, 
carelessness  of  privacy  and  delicacy,  have  been  great  and 
growing  sins  of  the  press ;  but  the  world  has  always  consid- 
ered that 


and  Worthies S7iess.  217 

"  Sins  for  want  of  legislation 
Are  not  quite  like  sins  by  law." 

It  was  reserved  for  a  woman's  newspaper  to  come  out  with 
the  public  announcement  that  individuals  have  no  rights 
which  newspapers  are  bound  to  respect.  Hypocrisy  is  the 
tribute  which  vice  pays  to  virtue  ;  but  in  the  red  glare  of 
such  a  new  light  as  this  one  is  disposed  to  call  hypocrisy  it 
self  a  virtue.  Certainly  righteousness  has  made  but  a  sor> 
ry  gain  when  the  villain  pulls  off  his  mask,  not  to  reform, 
but  to  practice  vice  openly.  Men  are  constantly  breaking 
down  the  barriers  which  religion,  and  honor,  and  instinct 
have  erected  ;  but  women  ignore  honor  and  instinct,  and 
deny  that  there  should  be  any  barrier  at  all.  Whatever  any 
person  happens  to  know  or  chooses  to  infer  about  any  other 
person,  he  shall  be  at  perfect  liberty  to  send  abroad  in  the 
newspapers.  How  hatred,  envy,  malice,  and  all  uncharita- 
bleness  could  give  itself  looser  rein  than  this,  how  a  code 
more  unprincipled  could  be  promulgated,  or  a  license  more 
reckless  be  established,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine.  That  the 
paper  is  not  indulging  in  glittering  and  sounding  generali- 
ties, but  knows  what  it  says,  and  says  what  it  means,  is 
proved  by  its  following  up  this  announcement  with  two  col- 
umns of  personal  abuse  of  a  private  gentleman  in  regard  to 
his  personal  and  private  affairs — abuse  whose  vulgarity  is 
not  lost  in  its  atrocity,  abuse  alike  of  his  benevolence  and 
his  business,  abuse  that  deals  in  motive  as  freely  and  confi- 
dently as  in  fact,  and  abuse  that  does  not  so  much  as 
shadow  any  authority  beyond  "  as  we  learn,"  "  as  we  hear," 
"  we  have  heard  from  what  should  be  good  authority,"  "  it  is 
said." 

Such  a  transaction  as  this  would,  I  believe,  among  men, 
condemn  its  perpetrator  to  infamy.  No  man  of  honor  would 
lay  down  such  a  law  or  write  such  an  article.  No  respect- 
able newspaper  in  the  hands  of  respectable  men  would  print 

K 


2i8  Woman^s  Worth 

it.  That  a  woman's  newspaper  does  it  without  misgiving 
argues  a  hardness  of  heart  or  a  blindness  of  mind  that  prom- 
ises ill  in  the  way  of  purifying  or  elevating  society. 

Again,  in  the  same  paper  occurs  the  following  paragraph : 

"The  other  day  I  overheard  a  gentleman  say  to  one  of 
the  women  clerks  in  the  Treasury  Department, '  I  sav/  you 
at  the  Convention.  How  did  you  like  it  ?'  '  Very  well  in- 
deed. We  had  some  smart  women  there,  hadn't  we?'  'You 
say  we  had  some  smart  women  there.  You  don't  mean  to 
say  that  you  are  a  "  woman's  righter"  too,  do  you  ?'  '  Show 
me  the  thoughtful  working- woman  that  is  not.'    '  Why,  there's 

Mrs. ,  she  came  from  the  working-classes.'     '  Yes  ; 

but  she  does  not  belong  to  the  working-classes  now,  and 
seems  to  forget  that  she  ever  did.  Just  let  her  have  a  fam- 
ily to  support,  as  I  and  hundreds  of  others  have,  and  she'll 
quickly  change  her  tune.'  This  is  the  spirit  that  animates 
them  all." 

For  the  name  which  I  have  put  in  blank  the  paragraph 
gives  the  name  in  full — a  name  that  should  never  cease  to 
awaken  grateful  emotions  in  this  country,  but  the  name  of  a 
woman  who  is  known  to  be  actively  opposed  to  female  suf- 
frage. In  this  paragraph  the  idea  is  presented  that  this 
woman  was  once  a  poor  girl,  belonging  to  the  "working- 
classes,"  but  had  since  risen  to  prosperity  and  renown,  and 
that,  in  her  desire  to  forget,  and  make  others  forget  the  low 
estate  from  which  she  sprung,  she  was  opposing  the  cause 
of  the  class  to  which  she  once  belonged.  In  a  country  like 
ours  few  charges  could  be  more  obnoxious  or  opprobrious, 
and  I  may  say  more  ingenious  than  this.  If  true,  it  argues 
a  vanity,  a  vulgarity,  a  baseness  of  mind  which  ought  to  neu- 
tralize one's  influence  ;  but  if  false,  it  is  embarrassing  to 
disprove.  No  lady  would  like  to  come  forward  and  deny 
that  she  ever  belonged  to  the  laboring  class,  as  if  such  be- 
longing were  disgraceful,  were  a  slander  to  be  repelled ; 
apart  from  the  fact  that  no  lady  would  like  to  come  forward 


and  Worthies sness.  219 

at  all,  and  apart  from  another  fact,  that  nobody  could  define 
exactly  what  is  meant  in  this  country  by  the  laboring  class. 
Probably  the  lady  in  question  never  saw  this  paragraph ; 
but  it  happens  that  she  is  one  of  the  few  who  are  reared 
from  their  birth  in  affluence  and  luxury — the  daughter  of  a 
family  of  high  social  position,  of  distinguished  public  service, 
representing  generations  of  culture,  and  enjoying  a  national 
fame.  This  woman  writer,  therefore,  has  published  against 
another  woman,  her  political  opponent,  an  offensive  person- 
al slander,  either  knowing  it  to  be  false,  or  not  knowing  it 
to  be  true— in  either  case  equally  slanderous,  and  in  neither 
case  founded  on  stronger  authority  or  further  investigation 
than  an  "overheard." 

Thus  does  woman's  finer  nature,  intuitive  perception,  and 
aptness  for  moral  truth  supply  the  element  wanting  in  mas- 
culine politics  and  masculine  newspapers.  That  they  do 
not  produce  ideal  serenity  or  suavity  in  female  deliberations 
must  be  inferred  from  the  published  complaint  of  one  of  the 
most  prominent  leaders.  "  What,"  says  she,  "  with  the  in- 
veterate hatred  and  persistent  malice  of  my  sisters,  and  the 
contemptible  self-importance  and  overweening  self-sufficien- 
cy of  my  brothers,  have  I  had  to  cheer  me  in  the  course  I 
have  marked  out?"  "Art  thou  in  health,  my  brother?" 
asked  a  v/ily  male  politician  ;  but  all  the  same  he  smote  his 
brother  in  the  fifth  rib,  and  he  died.  Evidently  the  courte- 
sies and  tendernesses  of  kinship  shall  not  prevent  the  hap- 
py family  from  speaking  its  mind ;  but  it  is  not  easy  to  see 
how  political  manners  are  to  be  improved  by  adding  the 
persistent  malice  of  our  sisters  to  the  contemptible  self-im- 
portance of  our  brothers. 

Is  it  the  innate  refinement  of  women  which  produces  such 
a  criticism  as  the  following  in  one  of  the  most  moderate  and 
high-minded  of  the  woman  papers  upon  a  series  of  articles 
opposing  female  suffrage  ? 


2  20  Wo7na?i's  Worth 

"  They  might  be  supposed  such  as  some  superannuated 
old  maid  of  disappointed  hopes  and  of  blasted  aspirations 
might  easily  be  imagined  to  indulge  in,  with  a  view  of  aveng- 
ing herself  on  her  more  favored  sisters." 

Will  the  asperities  of  political  discussion  be  softened,  and 
the  passions  of  political  excitement  soothed,  when  these  re- 
fining and  ennobling  side-issues  are  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  settlement  of  claims  and  the  adjustment  of  duties  ;  when 
the  advocate  of  a  high  tariff  shall  have  to  defend  herself  not 
only  against  charges  of  undue  desire  to  protect  her  own 
coal-lands,  but  of  matrimonial  designs  upon  the  bachelor 
protectionist  from  Arcadia  ?  And  with  what  a  naive  uncon- 
sciousness does  the  writer  reveal  her  own  opinion  that,  after 
all,  the  state  of  thraldom  to  a  man  is  one  for  hope  and  as- 
piration, and  that  the  favored  sisters  are  those  who  are  un- 
der  its  direct  yoke  ! 

A  third  woman's  paper  closes  a  column  devoted  to  the 
"  twaddle"  of  an  opponent  with  a  lofty  conception  of  motive 
and  an  intuitive  perception  of  moral  truth  which  woman's 
finer  nature  can  alone  supply. 

"  Between  the  lines  of 's  writings  I  think  we  can 

read, '  It  would  be  w^ell  to  find  something  to  write  smartly 
about.  Now  /  receive  all  the  recognition  /  want,  or,  rather, 
used  to  receive.  If  these  woman's  rights  women  are  to  be 
every  where  recognized  as  doing  a  good  work,  I  shall  cut  a 
sorry  figure  with  the  quips  and  squibs  I  have  written — or, 
rather,  no  figure  at  all.  Well,  a  smart  person,  such  as  I  am, 
ought  to  be  saying  something ;  and  the  men,  many  of  them, 
and  the  fashionable  women,  most  of  them,  and  a  good  many 
of  the  papers — these,  if  I  say  smart  things  about  women, 
disparage  them,  etc.,  etc.,  will  give  me  all  the  recognition  I 
want'  " 

AVoman  newspapers,  passing  judgment  on  each  other,  re- 
fine upon  the  coarse,  old-fashioned,  masculine  methods  of 
controversy  by  admonishing  their  opponents  in  the  follow 
ing  gentle,  "  innate"  manner  : 


and  Worthless7iess.  221 

"We  know  of  nothing  more  contemptible  than  for  the 
proprietors  of  a  paper  to  descend  to  vent  their  spleen  upon 
a  contemporary  by  going  among  newsmen,  and  endeavoring 
to  prevail  upon  them  to  discard  it  from  their  list  of  papers 
kept  for  sale  by  misrepresentations.  But  to  such  shifts  does 
a  journal  professing  to  be  an  advocate  of  woman's  suffrage 
resort  to  preserve  its  life  against  the  encroachments  of  the 

.    Vain  endeavor !    The has  sustained  shocks 

compared  to  which  the  present  exhibition  of  impotent  rage 
is  as  a  mole-hill  to  a  mountain. 

"  Neighbor  !  you  are  a  very  good  paper  so  far  as  you  go, 
and  we  gladly  recommend  you  to  those  readers  whose  men- 
tal stomachs  can  not  yet  digest  strong  food,  or  which  have 
become  dyspeptic  from  injudicious  aliment ;  but  your  limits 
are  by  far  too  contracted  by  bigotry,  intolerance,  prejudice, 
and  Pharisaical  godliness  to  suit  minds  which  have  burst 
the  bonds  of  custom  and  practice,  and  boldly  struck  out  for 
truth,  and  which  accord  to  every  body  what  they  claim  for 
themselves.  It  may  also  do  you  a  service  to  remind  you 
that  every  body  do  not  believe  your  simple  assertions,  un- 
supported by  any  fact.  Ponder  this  well,  and  do  not  die 
unrepentant." 

And  again  : 

"  Without  presuming  to  lecture  any  body,  we  may  be  al- 
lowed to  say  ....  that  the and  other  papers  of  its 

class  should  have  a  little  more  regard  for  common  honesty, 
and  not  forget,  in  their  personal  malice,  to  be  consistent ; 

for  there  are  some  people  who  even  read  the  that 

are  not  so  stupid  as  to  be  blind  to  it It  informed  us, 

not  long  since,  that  the  determining  of  this  case  should  be 
with  'pure  hands.'  Verily  a  Daniel  would  come  to  judg- 
ment !  Let  it  be  from  this  time  forth  understood  through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  this  land  that  the  editors  of 
the are  those  perfect  ones  whom  the  Lord  hath  ap- 
pointed and  sent  to  Boston  to  judge  the  earth ;  and  let  no 
rash  woman  lift  her  voice  for  any  right  she  may  think  her- 
self possessed  of  until  she  shall  have  journeyed  to  Boston, 
been  tried,  found  pure,  and  thus  labeled  by  these  holy  and 
wise  (?)  judges,  who  are  more  troubled  about  what  they  sur- 
mise women  may  have  been  than  about  what  they  are." 


22  2  Woman's  Worth 

It  is  not  necessary,  as  it  is  certainly  not  agreeable,  to  mul' 
tiply  quotations.  Those  which  I  have  given  are  not  excep- 
tional in  tone.  Of  the  three  suffrage  newspapers  published 
by  women,  one  is  generally  temperate  and  not  undignified  ; 
the  second  is  not  inaptly  represented  by  these  extracts ;  and 
the  third  descends  so  low  that  the  paragraphs  I  have  given 
represent  it  on  the  heights.  I  have  seen,  I  admit,  only  two 
or  three  numbers  of  that  paper,  but  a  single  one  of  those 
contained  three  articles  each  of  which  should  be  enough  for 
the  condemnation  of  any  man's  newspaper  in  which  it  should 
appear,  and  to  banish  from  honorable  business  and  social 
circles  any  man  who  should  confess  himself  to  be  its  author. 
The  articles  are  not  quotable  either  in  letter  or  spirit ;  they 
have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  female  suffrage,  or  free 
love,  or  any  other  disputed  point.  It  is  simply  a  foul  taste 
creating  and  embracing  an  opportunity  for  indulgence.  If 
any  one  choose  to  ascertain  for  himself  how  far  this  judg- 
ment be  correct,  he  can  consult  the  paper — which  it  is  not 
necessary  more  particularly  to  specify — of  March  i8, 1871. 

There  may  be  differences  of  opinion  regarding  modes  of 
warfare.  Since  writing  the  above,  I  have,  I  confess,  been  as- 
tonished to  see  one  of  the  three  articles  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred, and  that,  perhaps,  the  worst  of  the  three — an  article 
which  to  me  appeared  thoroughly  filthy  and  otherwise  inde- 
cent— transferred  bodily  from  the  woman  paper  in  which  it 
originally  appeared  to  the  columns  of  an  eminently  conserv- 
ative weekly  paper,  published  by  men  in  an  equally  conserv- 
ative city,  and  constantly  opposed  to  the  cause  of  woman's 
rights.  This  paper  quietly  prints  the  article,  without  appa- 
rently seeing  in  it  any  thing  objectionable  except  its  source. 
That,  with  a  carefulness  or  carelessness  little  honorable,  it 
conceals,  but  the  article  itself  it  copies  as  desirable  reading 
for  its  own  subscribers.  Just  the  same,  however,  this  style 
of  political  and  journalistic  discussion  seems  to  me  to  be 


and  Wo7'thless7iess.  223 

equally  wanting  in  feminine  grace  and  masculine  strength ) 
as  deficient  in  native  delicacy  as  in  literary  finish  ;  seems  to 
be  blunt  and  brutal  rather  than  fine  and  womanly ;  seems 
to  be  a  tussle  with  bludgeons  and  cleavers  rather  than  a 
meeting  of  noble  minds  and  a  comparison  of  elevated  views. 

But  the  proprietors  and  editors  of  these  papers — the  au- 
thors of  these  discussions  and  criticisms,  are  women,  ac- 
knowledged leaders  of  the  movement,  standing  in  the  fore- 
front of  battle,  and  giving  the  word  of  command.  Through 
such  channels  must  come  the  refinement  and  nobility  which 
women  are  to  contribute  to  politics,  and  there  is  no  visible 
reason  why  the  first  installments  of  that  contribution  should 
not  already  have  appeared.  That  all  female  politicians,  or 
all  woman's  rights  newspapers,  or  all  parts  of  any  one  news- 
paper, are  coarse  and  indelicate,  no  one  will  aver ;  but  who- 
ever examines  the  matter  will  find  that  coarseness,  inaccura- 
cy, ill  feeling,  and  ill  manners  are  just  as  prominent  and,  oc- 
cupy proportionally  as  large  a  space  in  the  political  counsels 
and  political  papers  of  women  as  in  those  of  the  correspond- 
ing class  of  men,  and  that  the  effect  thus  far  of  women's 
active  participation  in  politics  has  not  been  an  infusion  of 
modesty  and  refinement,  of  moral  elevation  and  spiritual 
sanctity,  of  sweetness  and  light. 

The  department  of  newspaper  writing  known  as  reporting 
and  correspondence  has  of  late  years  fallen  more  and  more 
into  the  hands  of  women.  In  the  hands  of  men  it  had  great- 
ly deteriorated.  From  being  an  honest  and  honorable  col- 
lector of  items  which  have  a  legitimate  if  local  and  tempo- 
rary interest,  the  reporter  has  come  to  be  one  who  does  not 
disdain  to  hide  under  a  table  for  the  purpose  of  overhearing 
and  reporting  the  conversation  of  the  dinner-guests  in  the 
next  room.  It  has  come  to  be  possible  for  a  man  bearing 
a  name  of  historic  renown,  that  would  of  itself  disarm  sus- 
picion, to  visit  a  private  house  on  the  footing  of  a  gentleman. 


2  24  Woman^s  Worth 

and  then  send  to  his  newspaper  a  minute  description  and 
criticism  of  his  hostess  by  name,  and  a  pretended  and  de- 
tailed report  of  the  conversation.  There  are  others,  who 
would  not  descend  into  these  lower  depths,  who  yet  do  not 
think  it  unbecoming  the  estate  of  those  who  were  made  a 
little  lower  than  the  angels  to  employ  their  vigorous  intellect 
and  their  sinewy  strength  in  informing  a  breathless  audience 
that  Mrs.  A.,  the  elegant  lady  of  the  Grand  Mogul,  was  as- 
sisting to  receive,  and  looked  charming  in  a  splendid  black 
gros-grain  silk,  with  court  train,  heavily  trimmed  with  folds 
of  green  velvet ;  that  Mrs.  Ex-Sultan  B.  looked  queenly  in 
a  lemon-colored  moire-antique  silk  j  that  Mrs.  C.  looked 
charming  in  a  white  silk,  long  train  ;  that  Mrs.  D.  was,  if 
last,  not  least  in  beauty  and  tasteful  arrangement  of  toilet, 
in  a  lavender  silk,  court  train ;  that  Mrs.  E.  received  her 
friends  as  usual  yesterday,  and  the  dressing  of  the  hostess 
was  superb — ^just  what  good  taste  and  unlimited  wealth 
would  dictate — and  a  fine  collation  spread  for  those  who 
desired  to  partake  ;  that  Mrs.  F.  was  "  at  home"  in  elegant 
st}de,  and  her  dress  was  of  fine  texture  and  of  elegant  make, 
and  her  toilet  tastefully  and  elaborately  made,  and  the  good 
things  of  life  were  offered  to  those  who  desired  to  partake ; 
that  Mrs.  G.  presented  to  her  many  friends  a  fine  entertain- 
ment, and  they  were  well  provided  with  the  good  things  of 
life  to  eat  and  drink,  and  her  attire  was  elegant,  and  her  toi- 
let tastily  and  beautifully  arranged  ;  that  Mrs.  H.  welcomed 
her  numerous  friends,  and  the  dressing  of  the  hostess  was 
magnificent,  and  an  elegant  repast  was  spread  for  those  who 
desired  to  partake. 

There  was  a  time  within  the  memory  of  men  still  living 
when  the  standard  of  social  morals  was  such  that  a  man 
was  summarily  dismissed  from  society  for  having  sent  to  the 
public  prints  a  description  of  the  ladies  at  a  ball,  though  he 
used  only  initials  for  names.     Now  the  reporter  presents 


and  Worthkssness.  225 

himself,  with  note-book  and  pencil,  as  openly  and  serenely 
as  if  he  were  the  mainspring  of  our  institutions,  and,  having 
taken  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  situation  in  the  parlors,  and 
swept  in  a  rapid  list  of  the  cards  from  the  servants,  he  de- 
parts to  work  up  his  court  trains  and  high  corsages  at  lei- 
sure, or  to  make  further  observations  in  the  next  house ; 
and  all  with  that  quiet  assumption  of  legitimacy  and  that 
absolute  ignoring  of  outlawry  that  would  be  amusing  if  its 
results  were  only  a  little  less  annoying.  If  remonstrated 
with,  he  remarks,  with  wide-eyed  innocence,  that  he  has  his 
living  to  get !  though,  to  be  sure,  the  highwayman  might 
make  the  same  plea.  Or  he  carries  the  war  into  Africa  by 
turning  upon  you  and  affirming  that  the  ladies  like  it ;  that 
he  should  give  offense  if  he  did  not  report  their  dresses ; 
that  he  has  been  sent  for,  previous  to  a  party,  and  furnished 
by  the  host  with  minute  descriptions  of  dress  and  decora- 
tions, that  no  item  of  self-glorification  should  go  unrecorded  ! 
What  a  field  is  here  for  the  refining  and  ennobling  influ- 
ence of  woman  !  Are  there  women  who  enjoy  the  vulgarity 
of  publicity ;  who  love  to  see  their  homes  invaded,  their  hos- 
pitality recorded,  their  dresses  unfolded  to  the  curious  gaze  ? 
So  much  the  more  should  right-minded  women  win  them 
away  from  so  false  a  standard  by  a  scrupulous  reverence  for 
the  privacy  thus  lightly  esteemed,  by  an  intelligent  and  dis- 
criminating observation,  and  by  a  graceful  and  attractive 
presentation  of  that  which  is  worthy  and  enduring.  Wheth- 
er, moreover,  such  women  do  or  do  not  exist,  it  is  certain 
that  there  is  a  large  class  of  women  in  our  chief  cities,  and 
particularly  in  our  chief  city,  to  whom  this  style  of  letter- 
writing  is  a  source  of  annoyance  and  disgust ;  who  desire 
from  correspondents  nothing  so  much  as  the  mercy  of  their 
silence.  A  female  writer  has,  therefore,  not  only  an  oppor- 
tunity to  ennoble  numbers  of  her  sex  by  the  dignity  of  ex- 
ample, but  she  may  also  be  sure  of  a  large  and  strong  fol- 
K  2 


2  26  Woman's  Worth 

lowing  among  a  long-suffering  but  sufficiently  respectable 
class. 

No  man  has  gone  so  low  in  the  depths  of  epistolary  deg- 
radation that  a  woman  has  not  gone  lower.  Men  corre- 
spondents are  inane,  but  they  are  generally  good  natured. 
They  flounder  about  amid  point  lace  and  moire  antique  with 
masculine  intrepidity,  and,  it  must  be  added,  with  masculine 
insensibility.  They  turn  your  cherry  velvet  into  pink  silk, 
but  without  any  conscience  of  sin.  They  put  you  in  a  ma- 
roon gown  without  a  moment's  warning,  and  derange  all 
your  harmonies  with  the  most  amiable  intentions ;  for  their 
crescendo  is  as  gushing  and  guileless  as  their  diminuendo. 
Your  last  season's  rumpled  and  faded  finery  comes  out  as 
"  superb  dressing."  Your  modest  house  is  a  "  spacious  man- 
sion." Your  sedate  horses  turn  into  prancing  steeds  under 
this  magic  wand  ;  and  you  yourself — a  quiet,  domestic,  and 
not  over-self-confident  person — hardly  recognize  your  por- 
trait in  the  "  votary  of  fashion"  or  "  queen  of  society"  into 
which  you  have  suffered  a  sea-change.  If  your  correspond- 
ent has  unwittingly  robbed  Peter,  he  has  lavishly  paid  Paul. 
If  his  insipidity  has  flavor,  it  is  a  flavor  of  sweetness.  He 
irritates  and  exasperates  you ;  but  he  does  it  gently,  as  if 
he  loved  you.  He  must  get  his  living  out  of  you,  but,  be- 
yond that,  he  would  rathei  please  than  displease. 

It  was  a  woman's  name  that  was  appended  to  a  letter 
which  mentioned  certain  estimable  ladies  only  to  ridicule 
their  physical  peculiarities— ladies  who  were,  in  a  sense, 
guests  of  the  nation,  and  to  whom,  therefore,  civility  was  pe- 
culiarly due.  It  was  a  woman  w^ho  employed  her  pen  and 
ber  position  to  ridicule  the  person  and  dress  of  another 
writer,  a  gifted  and  excellent  woman,  with  a  coarseness,  a 
bitterness,  a  malignity  which  it  would  not  be  speaking  too 
strongly  to  call  infernal.  It  was  a  woman  who  thrust  her- 
self into  the  presence  of  a  widowed  mother  and  her  grown- 


and  Worthlessncss.  227 

up  son,  to  whom  this  nation  owes  nothing  but  respect  and 
cloierence,  if  only  for  the  name  they  bear,  and  boldly  and 
baldly  questioned  the  young  man  as  to  his  mother's  pecun- 
iary resources  and  marriage  possibilities.  It  was  a  woman 
who  pried  into  the  trousseau  of  a  beautiful  and  modest  young 
lady,  and  on  the  wings  of  mighty  winds  sent  flying  all  abroad 
a  complete  list  of  her  wardrobe,  regardless  alike  of  common 
decency  and  of  the  feelings  and  reputation  of  the  person 
most  concerned.  It  was  a  woman  who  occupied  column 
after  column  of  the  newspaper  with  narrations  of  the  past 
history  of  her  still  living  female  friends,  never  faltering  be- 
fore what  are  generally  considered  the  most  secret  and  even 
sacred  facts,  recounting  wdth  equal  nonchalance  the  family 
struggles  with  poverty  and  the  number  of  offers  which  a  lady 
received  before  her  final  acceptance.  And  it  is  a  woman 
who  comes  out  in  a  conservative  newspaper  to  defend  these 
things  on  the  ground  of  reason,  and  right,  and  common 
sense,  and  to  denounce  as  mock  modesty  and  affectation  the 
reluctance  which  some  women  still  retain  to  seeing  their 
names  or  any  facts  of  their  personal  history  exposed  to  the 
public  gaze. 

I  need  not  add  to  these  specifications,  nor  can  I  any  far- 
ther designate  them  without  repeating  and  increasing  the 
harm  they  must  already  have  caused ;  but  I  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  affirm,  as  the  most  painful  and  unexpected  result  of 
my  own  observation,  that  the  grossest  violations  of  courtesy, 
modesty,  delicacy,  and  decency,  attributable  to  correspond- 
ents, have  been  perpetrated  by  women. 

It  might  happen  that  women  should  here  and  there  be 
found  who  would  not  feel  it  derogatory  to  themselves  or 
their  profession  to  use  their  pens  for  the  gratification  of  per- 
sonal malice,  personal  revenge,  or  public  curiosity,  and  yet 
that  the  general  influence  of  this  irruption  of  women  upon 
the  political  press  should  be  elevating.     Here  and  there  a 


2  28  JVoman's  Worth 

"  sister"  may  go  to  greater  lengths  than  any  "  brother"  \vith« 
out  affecting  the  fact  that  in  general  sisters  are  more  mod- 
erate, impartial,  clear-sighted,  comprehensive,  and  dispas- 
sionate than  brothers. 

As  the  pens  of  correspondents  have  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  women,  has  there  been  manifested  a  disposition  to  cor- 
rect the  tendency  of  correspondence  toward  deterioration 
into  gossip  ?  In  spite  of  the  indiscreet  and  unwomanly  rev- 
elations made  by  some  female  writers,  do  we  find  the  gen- 
eral result  to  be  an  increasing  respect  for  individuality,  a 
gradual  disuse  of  personahty,  a  deference  to  the  claims  of 
courtesy,  to  the  divinity  that  doth  hedge  a  man  and  a  wom- 
an by  virtue  of  their  manhood  and  womanhood,  and  \vhich 
is  not  forfeited  by  any  amount  of  public  service  ?  Do  we 
see  an  intelligent  recognition  and  observance  of  the  forms 
of  society  which,  though  sometimes  apparently  arbitrary  and 
sometimes  really  irksome,  do  yet  constitute  the  best  avail- 
able and  the  certainly  indispensable  protection  of  the  indi- 
vidual against  society,  the  reign  of  constitutional  law  as 
against  anarchy,  without  which  life  becomes  intolerable  and 
fruitless?  When  we  hear  that  a  woman  is  attached  to  the 
staff  of  reporters,  do  we  feel  that  now  we  shall  creep  out 
from  under  the  dinner-table,  disentangle  our  feet  from  court- 
trains,  take  it  for  granted  that  every  body  wears  his  best 
clothes  in  company,  and  enter  the  circle  of  real  interests,  of 
grave  considerations,  of  close  scrutiny,  and  careful  compar- 
isons, and  keen  analysis,  and  high  aim,  and  just  award  ?  Do 
public  officers,  members  of  state  or  national  Legislatures, 
and  all  who  directly  concern  themselves  in  the  ship  of  state, 
feel  an  assurance  that,  when  women  are  on  the  witnessing 
stand,  official  acts  and  deliberations  are  subjected  to  a  wiser 
scrutiny ;  that  trivial  or  irrelevant  facts  will  be  left  in  the 
background,  and  only  those  which  are  pertinent  brought  for- 
ward ;  that  falseness,  chicanery,  and  sophistry  will  stand  a 


and  Wo7'tJiless7iess.  229 

greater  chance  of  being  detected,  and  sense,  and  honesty, 
and  comprehensiveness  a  greater  chance  of  being  recog- 
nized ;  that  personal  Hking  and  disliking  will  be  laid  aside, 
and  motives  and  methods  judged  abstractly  ;  that  clap-trap 
will  lose  power,  and  quiet  ability  come  to  the  front ;  that 
business  shall  be  understood,  and  progress  signified,  and 
work  not  to  be  mistaken  for  idling,  nor  an  itching  for  noto- 
riety be  mistaken  for  spirited  patriotism  ? 

It  must  be  admitted  that  women  will  find  it  no  easy  task 
to  outstrip  the  best  class  of  male  correspondents.  It  will 
not  be  denied  that  there  are  among  the  latter  men  of  em- 
inent ability  and  integrity,  who  can  see  and  report  with 
equal  clearness ;  who  understand  that  the  part  of  a  corre- 
spondent is  not  to  nurse  prejudice,  nor  indulge  predilec- 
tion, nor  confirm  opinion,  nor  even  to  enforce  doctrine,  but, 
as  far  as  possible,  to  put  his  reader  in  possession  of  the  sit- 
uation ;  who  are  able  to  comprehend  it  because  they  are 
the  peers  of  those  who  make  it ;  men  whose  views  are 
wont  to  be  correct,  whose  judgment  is  based  on  their  views, 
and,  therefore,  likely  to  be  sound,  and  whose  opinions  and 
co-operation  are  therefore  apt  to  be  sought  in  shaping  ac- 
tion ;  men  who  do  not  boast  of  their  power  or  prowess,  who 
apparently  do  not  think  of  it,  who  are  simple,  direct,  and 
unconscious  in  their  business,  and  whose  influence,  spring- 
ing from  qualities  rather  than  position,  is  as  wholesome  as 
it  is  widespread. 

Am  I  wrong  in  believing  that  this  class  is  not  perceptibly 
increased  by  re-enforcements  from  the  ranks  of  women  ?  I 
do  not  deny  that  among  female  correspondents  there  are 
women  of  spotless  character  and  brilliant  parts ;  but,  as 
things  are,  is  it  possible  they  should  equal  men  in  the  pos- 
session of  political  influence  and  of  political  intelligence  ? 
The  man  is  in  constant  contact  with  men,  and  face  to  face 
with  events.     If  he  is  at  the  capital,  he  goes  every  where— 


230  JVo man's  Worth 

to  committee-rooms,  to  the  departments,  to  the  newspaper 
offices — at  all  hours  ;  wherever  measures  are  under  discus- 
sion, there  is  he,  to  judge  for  himself.  He  becomes  as  fa- 
miliar with  the  working  of  the  machinery  as  the  machinist, 
and  he  follows  the  course  of  legislation  with  entire  under- 
standing. A  woman  takes  observations  from  the  galleries, 
where,  with  close  attention,  she  can  perhaps  make  out  the 
words  of  one  speaker  in  ten  in  the  one  house,  and  in  the 
other  vainly  wishes  she  could  hear  ten  speakers  in  one. 
That  is,  a  fragment  of  such  part  of  legislation  as  appears  on 
the  surface  she  sees,  but  of  that  large  part  which  goes  on 
out  of  sight  she  necessarily  learns  only  by  hearsay  or  from 
the  male  reporter.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  see  how  it  can  well  be 
otherwise. 

Even  if  she  have  a  thorough  understanding  of  parliament- 
ary law,  and  if  she  be  so  constant  and  enthusiastic  in  her 
attendance  upon  legislative  assemblies  as  to  understand  all 
the  windings  and  turnings  of  bills  and  all  the  meanings  of 
motions,  she  still  labors  under  serious  disadvantages.  Un- 
less she  can  forget  she  is  a  woman,  and  make  every  one 
else  forget  it  too,  and  mingle  as  a  man  among  men,  it  seems 
impossible  that  she  should  compete  successfully  with  men. 
Women  write  eloquently  and  well  upon  patriotism,  states- 
manship, and  the  higher  life,  in  the  abstract ;  but  when  they 
come  to  definite  measures,  and  make  application  of  their 
principles,  they  are  just  as  likely  to  blame  and  praise  in  the 
wrong  place  as  are  men,  and  just  as  likely  to  blame  and 
praise  in  the  wrong  place  as  in  the  right  one  ! 

There  are  women  who  write  better  letters  than  men  could 
do  under  the  same  circumstances,  but  the  circumstances  are 
an  insuperable  fact.  No  law  hinders.  Custom  has  nothing 
to  do  with  it.  It  is  simply  that  the  woman  is  a  writer  and  a 
lady,  and  can  not  bring  herself — never  thinks  of  bringing 
herself — to  do  what  men  do  instinctively  in  the  line  of  the 


and  Worthlessness.  231 

same  profession.     And,  if  she  did  it,  it  would  not  be  the 
same  thing. 

Scenic  politics,  then,  is  chiefly  what  is  left  to  her  of  real 
politics,  if,  indeed,  that  be  real  politics.  Certainly  it  is  that 
part  of  politics  which  least  needs  cherishing.  It  is  politics 
just  dipping  into  personality — personality  the  least  oflens- 
ive,  it  is  true,  but  politics  the  least  improving,  either  to  poli- 
tician or  constituent.  Congress  is  public  property,  and  I 
suppose  we  have  a  perfect  right  to  gaze  at  its  members  from 
the  galleries,  and  pen-photograph  their  sphinx-like  faces, 
their  haughty  lips,  their  beetling  brows,  their  opal  eyes,  and 
their  majestic  noses,  for  circulation  in  the  rural  districts. 
But  has  this  kind  of  criticism  a  tendency  to  make  or  to  keep 
public  men  upright  ?  So  far  as  it  has  any  influence  at  all, 
is  it  not  to  call  off  attention  from  careful,  conscientious,  im- 
partial work,  and  to  make  a  man  rather  aspire  to  present  a 
good  appearance  on  the  pubHc  stage  ?  Already  that  tend- 
ency is  sufliciently  strong.  A  "  spicy  scene,"  a  piquant  rep- 
artee, will  be  telegraphed  from  one  end  of  the  country  to 
the  other,  when  careful  research  and  solid  argument,  that 
really  advance  the  case  and  would  really  inform  the  people, 
are  buried  past  resurrection  in  the  columns  of  the  Congres- 
sional Globe.  But  women  fall  into  this  current,  and  float 
along  with  it  rather  than  resist  it.  They  do  it  not  only  in 
Congress,  but  they  do  it  every  where.  If  they  are  reporting 
the  proceedings  of  their  own  conventions,  they  will  give  you 
the  color  of  the  feather  in  Phoebe  Cozzen's  hat,  but  Mrs. 
Howe's  weightiest  epigram  they  will  leave  you  to  learn  from 
a  chance  comer  or  from  a  male  reporter.  If  you  remon- 
strate with  them,  they  say  the  publishers  want  it.  It  is  per- 
sonality that  is  most  in  demand.  Every  fresh  batch  of  eyes 
and  noses,  of  ample  cloaks  and  leonine  hair,  is  in  response 
to  a  fresh  call.  They  are  valued  as  letter-writers  because 
they  do  this  kind  of  thing  so  well.     And  it  has  even  hap- 


232  J Vo man's  JJ'orf/i 

pened  that  a  man  has  been  asked  at  head-quarters  whether 
he  could  not  fashion  his  letters  a  little  more  like  those  of 
his  wife — head-quarters  not  being  aw^are  that  the  lady  in 
question  was  his  wife. 

Yes,  but  the  worst  crime  of  which  we  can  accuse  a  man 
is  yielding  to  temptation.  Not  the  most  wily  and  wncked 
politician  that  ever  wrought  evil  wrought  it  except  for  the 
sake  of  procuring  some  good  to  himself  How  are  women 
to  introduce  incorruptibility  into  politics  if  at  the  first  stroke 
of  the  publisher's  wand  they  consent  to  descend  ?  Why  is 
it  worse  for  a  man  to  vote  below  his  best  than  it  is  for  a 
woman  to  write  below  her  best  ?  Why  is  it  worse  for  a  pol- 
itician to  "  talk  buncombe"  than  it  is  for  a  woman  to  write 
it  ?  //  takes  !  To  be  sure  it  does.  The  very  worst  letter 
to  which  I  have  referred — the  one  whose  pen  was  dipped  in 
venom  to  describe  a  comrade — was  copied  into  other  papers 
as  a  "charming"  letter.  But  are  women  coming  into  polit- 
ical and  public  life  to  confirm  or  to  combat  trivial  taste  and 
low  inclination ;  to  render  public  service  more  effective,  or 
to  obtain  a  share  of  the  spoils  ;  to  minister  more  skillfully 
to  the  love  of  gossip,  or  to  substitute  for  it  something  worthy 
of  both  men  and  women  ? 

In  regard  to  social  law^s  and  individual  rights,  is  the  influ- 
ence of  women  better  than  that  of  men  t  There  are  women 
who  are  scrupulous  and  honorable,  but  is  the  proportion 
larger  than  that  of  scrupulous  and  honorable  men  ?  The 
women  who  do  sin  sin  with  a  high  hand  and  a  stretched- 
out  arm  apparently  unattainable  by  men.  A  man  recog- 
nizes rights  and  proprieties,  and  pays  to  them  the  small 
tribute  of  hiding  under  the  table.  He  knows  he  has  no 
business  there — or,  rather,  he  thinks  he  has  business  there, 
and  means  to  prosecute  it ;  but  he  advances  no  claim,  pre- 
sumes on  no  politeness,  and  deliberately,  and  I  may  say 
bravely,  runs  the  risk  of  being  turned  out  of  doors. 


and  Worthies sness.  233 

But  your  female  correspondent,  on  the  occasion,  for  in- 
stance, of  an  afternoon  reception  at  the  President's,  goes  to 
the  White  House,  enters  the  reception-room,  stations  her- 
self at  the  end  of  the  line  of  hostesses  as  if  she  were  one  of 
the  receiving  ladies,  and  stands  there  with  paper  and  pencil 
ready  to  impale  every  unhappy  fly  who,  unlike  her  proto- 
type, is  forced  to  come  slowly  flitting  by.  And  the  unhap- 
py flies  know  it,  and  can  not  help  it.  It  is  like  seeing  your 
scaffold  go  up  nail  by  nail  before  your  chamber  window. 
You  could  stand  decapitation  ;  but  the  process  of  prepara- 
tion is  the  one  straw  too  much.  But  a  woman  can  not  be 
turned  out  of  doors.  I  say  that  the  man  under  the  table  is 
less  exasperating,  and  better  bred,  and  not  less  "  elevated" 
than  the  woman  at  her  post  of  observation. 

When  you  go  to  an  evening  party,  and  see  a  woman 
standing  in  the  hall,  holding  her  paper  high  up  against  the 
wall  and  writing  vigorously,  in  the  most  conspicuous  place 
and  attitude,  commanding  with  her  guns  all  egress  and  in- 
gress ;  when  you  see  a  woman  at  a  ball  bearing  down  upon 
you  brandishing  her  note-book,  and  calling  out  in  tones  loud 
enough  to  be  heard  by  all  the  by-standers, "  Can't  stop  to 
talk  now.  I'm  correspondent  of  the  New  Zealand  Honey- 
comb P^  when  a  woman  accosts  you  in  a  public  convey- 
ance, and  informs  you  that  she  is  correspondent  of  this, 
that,  and  the  other  newspaper,  and  author  of  such  and  such 
books ;  when  a  woman  constructs  from  her  position  a  per- 
sonal threat,  one  longs  for  the  good  old  times  when  women 
were  secluded  and  did  not  know  the  alphabet,  and  their  hus- 
bands were  allowed  to  use  "  moderate  correction."  Perhaps, 
when  the  novelty  of  appearing  in  print  is  worn  off,  wom- 
en will  cease  to  brandish  their  pens  in  our  faces.  They 
will  feel  that  it  is  as  ill  bred  to  obtrude  th-eir  authorship  as 
it  would  be  to  obtrude  their  income,  their  wealthy  relatives, 
their  past  career,  or  any  other  personal  facts ;  that  not  only 


234  Woman^s  Worth 

is  this  obtrusiveness  unnecessary  to  good  work,  but  is  well- 
nigh  incompatible  with  it.  Certainly  there  are  none  to 
whom  it  is  more  offensive  than  to  the  better  members  of 
their  own  class.  But,  while  the  acclimating  process  is  go- 
ing on,  those  who  feel  that  the  lack  of  reticence  or  mag- 
nanimity in  one  woman  is  the  loss  of  all  women  can  but  be 
penetrated  with  a  lively  regret  and  shame,  not  unmingled 
with  dismay. 

So  far  as  the  department  of  Washington  correspondence 
offered  woman  a  iield  for  the  display  of  intellectual  acute- 
ness  and  social  wisdom,  it  has  been  largely  neglected.  Wom- 
en have  apparently  restrained  their  ambition  to  doing  deftly 
and  as  a  regular  business  the  inane  work  that  men  did  clum- 
sily and  incidentally.  For  the  laughter  and  applause  of  gal- 
leries they  have  been  willing  to  make  the  judicious  grieve. 
In  dealing  with  politics,  they  have  attempted  well,  though 
circumstances  may  have  prevented  a  complete  success  ;  but, 
with  few  exceptions,  in  dealing  with  society  they  have  not 
even  attempted  well.  Dreary  catalogues  of  dress  and  jew- 
elry, eulogistic  or  depreciating  descriptions  of  personal  ap- 
pearance, glittering  and  sounding  generalities  of  wealth  and 
splendor,  are  all  that  they  seem  to  have  aspired  to.  Given 
certain  reception  days,  and  certain  public  men  and  their 
wives — who  in  the  eyes  of  these  women  are  equally  public 
— and  unlimited  command  of  silk  and  satin,  and  you  have 
ample  material  for  a  Washington  letter.  No  matter  wheth- 
er the  man  were  at  the  reception  or  not.  He  might  have 
been,  and  in  the  letter  he  is.  It  is  generally  safe  to  pre- 
sume that  the  rural  districts  will  never  know  that  every 
thing  did  not  happen  precisely  as  reported.  Very  seldom 
occurs  such  a  contrete?nps  as  last  winter,  when  minute  ac- 
counts of  holiday  festivities  were  brought  to  grief  by  the  un- 
expected non-occurrence  of  the  festivities  ;  the  interruption 
of  which,  however,  was  so  late  that  the  history  of  their  hap- 


and  Worthlessness.  235 

penings  came  out  all  the  same  as  if  they  had  actually  hap- 
pened ! 

Of  the  real  significance  of  society — of  that  which  makes 
our  capital  city  brilliant,  distinguished,  or  pecuhar — you 
learn  as  little  from  the  letters  of  most  women  as  from  those 
of  men.  And  this  is  surprising.  Here  you  would  imagine 
women  to  be  on  their  native  heath.  It  may  be  because  the 
best  writers  touch  on  society  but  lightly  ;  but  those  who 
give  themselves  to  it,  so  far  as  I  have  seen,  give  themselves 
entirely  to  the  sensational  and  the  silly.  You  might  gather 
from  them  that  Washington  was  a  carnival  of  gayety,  a  whirl 
of  frivolity  and  parade,  a  confusion  of  color  and  glitter,  luxu- 
rious and  voluptuous,  if  not  selfish,  heartless,  and  unprinci- 
pled. You  would  not  gather  that  not  only  human  nature, 
but  human  condition,  is  very  much  the  same  there  as  else- 
where ;  that  Washington  holds  upright  citizens,  and  careful 
mothers,  and  eager  school -girls,  and  happy  homes;  that 
thrift,  and  economy,  and  good  neighborhood,  and  good  fel- 
lowship exist  there ;  that  the  claims  of  God  and  man,  re- 
ligion and  benevolence,  are  not  forgotten  ;  that  friendliness, 
and  chit-chat,  and  bright  talk,  and  mental  stimulus  abound  ; 
that  the  glitter  of  party-giving  and  party -going  is  but  a  small 
part  of  the  light  that  shines  ;  and  that,  though  one  may,  per- 
haps, more  easily  there  than  elsewhere,  rush  into  foolish  ex- 
citement and  frivolous  pastime,  it  is  of  his  own  frivolous  and 
foolish  will,  since  nowhere  can  he  find  more  abundant  ma- 
terial for  varied  and  reasonable  pleasure,  or  feel  that,  with 
his  intellectual  as  with  his  personal  wardrobe,  his  best  is  not 
too  good  for  presentation. 

The  power  of  the  press  to  delight  and  benefit,  to  annoy 
and  injure,  is  practically  determined  only  by  the  temper, 
breeding,  and  ability  of  those  who  write  for  it.  No  eulogy 
is  so  nauseous,  no  libel  so  gross,  no  gossip  so  scandalous,  no 
item  so  frivolous  that  it  can  not  somewhere  find  a  ready 


236  Woman^s  Worth 

market.  For  the  tale-bearing,  the  black-mailing,  the  general 
sensationalism  which  mar  the  comeliness  and  diminish  the 
value  of  journalism  women  are  not  to  be  blamed.  They  did 
not  introduce  them.  Neither,  it  appears,  for  the  redemption 
of  journalism  from  these  vital  diseases  are  they  to  be  cred- 
ited. They  have  as  yet  shown  no  disposition  to  eradicate 
them. 


and  Worthlessness,  237 


XIII. 
REPRESENTATIVE  REFORM. 

If  women  had  the  suffrage,  it  is  asserted  that  they  would 
choose  better  men  for  officers  than  those  now  in  service. 
"  The  very  thing  we  want,"  says  one  lecturer,  "  is  to  bring 
into  our  politics  some  elevating  influences.  Do  you  believe, 
if  women  had  the  right  to  vote,  you  ever  could  put  up  such 
men  as  are  put  up  for  office  ?" 

And  the  Woman  Suffrage  pledge,  which  ladies  from  all 
parts  of  the  Union  are  invited  to  sign,  confirms  this  view  : 

"  And,  believing  that  character  is  the  best  safeguard  of 
national  liberty,  we  pledge  ourselves  to  make  the  personal 
purity  and  integrity  of  candidates  for  public  office  the  first 
test  of  fitness." 

Nothing  in  the  history  of  the  Woman  Suffrage  Party  re- 
moves this  from  the  class  of  points  yet  to  be  proven.  It  is 
so  far  mere  hypothesis — with  the  presumption  against  it. 
My  own  opinion  is  that,  when  women  vote,  bad  men  will  find 
no  more  difficulty  in  getting  into  office  than  they  at  present 
encounter,  and  bad  women  far  less.  How  can  a  party  which 
starts  out  with  the  professed  intention  "  to  help  elect  in  ev- 
ery town  the  man  who  is  our  friend  ;  to  help  defeat  in  every 
town  the  man  who  is  indifferent,"  so  that  "  soon  no  man 
who  is  not  our  friend  will  stand  a  chance  of  nomination" — 
how  can  such  a  party  make  personal  purity  and  integrity  the 
first  test  of  fitness  ?  How  often  have  we  heard  that  women 
have  good  memories,  and  will  never  forget  Governor  A. — 
Governor  A.'s  offense  being  that  he  voted  against  some 
measure  of  the  Woman  Party.    It  is  never  alleged  that  Gov- 


238  Woman's  IVorf/i 

ernor  A.  is  impure  or  dishonest ;  that  his  vote  was  sold,  or 
that  it  was  given  from  any  but  conscientious  and  patriotic 
motives.  It  is  simply  that  his  vote  was  adverse  to  the  par- 
ty's wishes.  I  do  not  say  that  women,  any  more  than  men, 
should  vote  for  their  political  opponents,  but  I  do  say  that 
this  assertion  sounds  more  like  a  personal  threat  than  like 
dispassionate  discussion,  is  a  style  of  argument  not  in  vogue 
among  the  better  class  of  unregenerate  male  politicians,  and 
is  not  an  improvement  on  their  style. 

"There  is  not  in  Washington  a  more  corrupt  lobbyist  than 
Mrs.  B.,"  said  a  gentleman  in  private  life,  not  officially  con- 
nected with  politics,  not  unfriendly  to  Woman  Suffrage,  and 
a  warm  friend  of  Mrs.  B.,  who  was  a  lady  of  purity  and  in- 
tegrity, unquestioned  and  unquestionable.  There  can  be  few 
women  in  this  or  any  land  brighter  or  better  than  she ;  but 
is  it  likely  to  be  a  wholesome  thing  for  men  to  see  woman 
taking,  in  ignorance  and  innocence,  a  course  of  political  ac- 
tion which  would  for  themselves  be  dishonest  and  disgrace- 
ful ?  And  will  not  good  women,  even  more  than  good  men, 
be  deceived  by  bad  men  ?  If  women  can  blindly  adopt 
measures  radically  wrong,  may  they  not  with  equal  blind- 
ness vote  for  equally  objectionable  men  }  No  one  can  affirm 
that  they  will ;  but  there  is  no  ground  for  affirming  that  they 
will  not.  Good  women,  speaking  from  their  moral  con- 
sciousness, promise  good  officers ;  but  in  the  candidates 
whom  women  have  already  elevated,  and  the  political  friends 
whom  they  have  already  adopted,  it  is  difficult  to  see  more 
discrimination  or  greater  rigor  of  selection  than  are  evinced 
by  men. 

"I  hope,"  says  an  enthusiastic  female  lecturer,  "I  hope 
that  I  may  live  to  see  Theodosia  in  Congress."  And  she 
would  then, doubtless, exclaim,  with  heartfelt  sincerity,  "Lord, 
now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes 
have  seen  thy  salvation."     But  to  me  it  seems  that  the  day 


and  Worthies  sues  s.  239 

which  sees  Theodosia  in  Congress  will  be  visibly  disastrous 
to  the  Woman  Suffrage  Party,  or  else  invisibly  disastrous  to 
the  best  interests  of  the  country,  irrespective  of  party,  for 
Theodosia  has  shown   no  one  qualification  of  a  legislator 
except  the  power  to  make  a  speech.     That,  indeed,  is  nec- 
essary.   The  man  who  is  not  only  to  frame  a  law,  but  to  se- 
cure its  adoption,  must  be  able  to  speak  clearly  and  forcibly 
on  the  field  of  battle.     But,  besides  this,  he  must  have  some- 
thing to  say.    Now  Theodosia  had  never  disclosed  any  com- 
prehension of  the  requirements,  the  limitations,  even  the  very 
fabric  of  government.     With  our  foreign  relations  and  the 
greater  part  of  our  domestic  interests  she  had  never  troubled 
herself     That  is,  with  by  far  the  larger  part  of  those  mat- 
ters which  it  is  the  business  of  Congress  to  adjust,  she  had 
evinced  no  familiarity  whatever,  as,  indeed,  there  was  no 
reason  to  demand  that  she  should ;  but  also,  in  the  few  po- 
litical questions  which  she  had  touched,  she  had  displayed 
powers  of  reasoning  and  practical  sagacity  far  below  the  av- 
erage of  male  politicians.     Now  it  is  one  thing  to  make  an 
address  in  a  quiet  hall  to  an  audience  assembled  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  hearing  you,  who  are  bound  to  be  resDCCt- 
ful  and  to  make  no  reply ;  an  audience  composed  in  large 
part  of  men  and  women  unable  to  speak  in  public  them- 
selves, unaccustomed  to  consecutive  thought,  and  on  whom 
fluency  makes  a  far  deeper  impression  than  fallacy ;  and 
composed  in  small  part  of  persons  whom  courtesy  and  pro- 
priety restrain  as  effectually  as  inability.     It  is  quite  anoth- 
er thing  to  be  associated  for  months  at  a  time,  on  terms  of 
perfect  equality — an  equality  which  neither  gives  nor  takes 
— with  scores  of  men,  each  with  his  own  purpose,  and  all 
meaning  business.     Most  of  these  are  the  prominent  and 
successful  men  of  their  own  district.    They  are  sent  to  Con- 
gress not  to  be  courteous  and  attentive,  but  to  represent  cer- 
tain interests,  to  secure  certain  measures.     They  not  only 


240  M^oman's  Worth 

have,  or  must  act  as  if  they  had,  a  conviction  that  these 
measures  are  desirable  ;  but  their  own  personal  and  political 
future  depends  upon  the  success  with  which  they  advocate 
them.  Theodosia  has  now  to  speak  privately  in  committee- 
room  and  publicly  in  Congress  to  men  just  as  eager  and 
fluent  as  herself;  men  who  have  a  keen  scent  for  a  false 
statement ;  who  at  the  first  point  where  her  logic  is  weak 
will  "beg  to  ask  a  single  question  ;"  who  will,  in  one  word, 
bring  all  their  force  to  bear  in  combating  her  and  in  further- 
ing their  own  plans.  If  Theodosia  reveals  on  "  Alabama" 
claims,  land-grants,  pig  iron,  national  banks,  whisky  tax,  and 
gunny-bags  the  same  uncertainty  in  point  of  facts  and  the 
same  unsteadiness  in  point  of  reasoning  that  she  has  re- 
vealed upon  the  platform,  it  seems  to  me  that  there  will 
very  speedily  be  nothing  left  of  Theodosia.  One  sometimes 
sees  in  Congress  a  persistent  member  uttering  dreary  plati- 
tudes to  empty  benches,  while  a  few  members  sit  in  their 
seats  busily  writing  and  reading ;  or  one  sees  a  full  house 
apparently  amusing  itself  by  passing  between  tellers,  or  "ta- 
king the  ayes  and  noes,"  sometimes  by  the  hour  together, 
and  it  seems  like  utter  inefficiency  and  child's  play.  But 
try  to  slip  through  unobserved  a  bill  for  your  private  benefit, 
and  the  chances  are  ten  to  one  that  the  apparently  careless 
members  will  show  a  surprising  understanding  of  what  is 
going  on.  It  is  the  fashion  in  many  circles  to  speak  slight- 
ingly and  sneeringly  of  Congress,  and,  indeed,  of  all  public 
service  and  public  servants.  Whether  it  is  wise  to  send  to 
Congress  men  who  deserve  slight  and  sneer ;  whether  it  is 
just,  as  well  as  wise,  to  send  superior  men  and  characterize 
them  as  inferior;  and  whether,  in  any  case,  it  is  likely  to  ad- 
vance the  dignity  and  value  of  public  service  and  the  best 
interests  of  the  country  to  denounce  and  degrade  its  legis- 
lative assemblies,  is  a  point  that  may  admit  of  doubt.  Per- 
haps this  is  considered  the  only  way  to  induce  in  public 


and  Worthlcssness. 


241 


servants  a  salutary  humility.  I  should  prefer  to  try  the  ex- 
periment of  the  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  who  wrote  his  wife's  epi- 
taph over  the  fireplace  while  she  was  yet  in  health,  in  order 
that,  if  she  were  not  all  that  it  portrayed,  she  might  become 
so.  This,  however,  is  but  a  matter  of  individual  taste  and 
judgment.  What  is  not  a  matter  of  taste  is  that  there  is  no 
body  of  men  or  women  in  the  country  who  take  a  man's 
measure  more  quickly  or  more  accurately,  no  place  where 
mere  reputation  counts  for  less,  or  where  a  man  sooner  finds 
his  true  level,  or  is  more  surely  forced  to  earn  his  laurels 
before  he  wears  them,  than  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  The  standing  of  a  man  there  appears  to  be  in  no 
wise  determined  by  his  standing  outside.  He  may  be  great 
at  home,  and  yet  ground  to  powder  at  his  first  session.  He 
may  be  little  accounted  of  at  home,  and  have  weight  with 
his  fellow-members. 

When  Theodosia  enters  this  body  she  enters  it  as  a  man. 
She  must  win  her  case  by  her  own  efforts — by  knowledge  of 
history,  politics,  finance,  business,  human  nature,  and  parlia- 
mentary law  ;  by  force  of  will,  by  strength  of  lung,  by  phys- 
ical endurance.  A  "  Washington  correspondent"  describes 
the  House  of  Representatives  on  a  certain  occasion  as  "sim 
ply  a  mad-house,  a  bear-garden,  a  menagerie ;"  and  a  wom- 
an paper,  on  the  strength  of  such  description,  justly  enough 
remarks  that  it  does  not  "  see  how  it  would  be  possible  for 
women  to  conduct  public  business  in  any  worse  manner 
than  this."  Let  me  entreat  women  not  to  found  any  ex- 
pectations of  reform  on  such  statements.  This  correspond- 
ent was  surely  carried  away  either  by  traditions  of  past  dis- 
order or  by  the  desire  of  making  a  sensation.  The  House 
on  the  occasion  referred  to  was  not  in  the  least  like  a  bear- 
garden, a  mad-house,  or  a  menagerie.  There  was  nothing 
incoherent,  indecorous,  or  unbecoming.  There  w^as  intense 
eagerness,  persistence,  resolution.     A  dozen  men  were  striv- 

L 


242  Woman's  Worth 

ing  for  the  floor  at  once ;  there  was  quick  consultation, 
modified  action  to  meet  emergencies,  and,  to  the  mere  spec- 
tator, great  confusion.  But  even  the  spectator  might  learn 
that  there  was  a  method  in  the  madness — that,  through  all 
the  apparent  confusion,  the  course  of  business  was  going 
on  as  steadily  and  sturdily  according  to  Constitution  and 
amendment,  in  as  strict  subordination  to  law  and  logic,  as 
if  there  had  been  the  Reign  of  Silence. 
A  female  writer  in  a  woman  paper  says, 

"  If  woman  was  allowed  a  participation  in  the  privileges 
and  honors  of  politics,  gallantr}-,  which  Nature  forces  man 
to  concede  to  her,  would  check  this  reckless  ambition  for 
power  and  supremacy,  and  oblige  him  to  lay  aside  some  of 
his  self-sufficiency,  here  as  elsewhere,  out  of  mere  civility  ; 
besides  this,  the  propensity  being  deficient  in  the  nature  of 
woman,  would  flourish  just  the  element  wanted  in  politics  to 
put  to  shame  and  do  away  with  this  corruption,  while  her  in- 
nate refinement  would  give  to  ambition  a  more  elevated  ob- 
ject than  mere  love  of  power." 

The  meaning  of  this  paragraph  is  somewhat  shrouded  in 
the  words ;  but  it  seems  to  be  that  when  a  woman  runs  for 
governor  or  senator,  men  will  yield  their  own  claims  and  let 
her  win,  just  as  they  now  give  up  their  seats  to  her  in  the 
crowded  car  or  church. 

I  have  some  faith  in  the  gallantly  of  my  countrymen, 
though  there  have  been  times  when  gallantry,  justice,  and 
decency  went  down  together.  It  is  not  two  years  since,  in 
a  court  of  justice,  under  the  forms  of  law  and  by  the  officers 
of  law,  outrages  were  perpetrated  upon  women  which  should 
have  made  the  ears  of  every  one  that  heard  it  to  tingle.  It 
is  not  three  years  since  blind  rage  and  brutal  ridicule  from 
one  end  of  this  nation  to  the  other  were  showered  by  men 
upon  a  woman,  the  latchets  of  whose  shoes  they  were  not 
worthy  to  unloose.  And  for  what  ?  For  that  which,  at  its 
very  worst,  was  an  indiscretion.     If  this  woman  had  been 


and  Worthies  sues  s.  243 

herself  guilty  of  the  crime  which  she  disclosed  of  another, 
she  could  not  have  been  more  severely  censured.  For  that 
which  no  one  alleged  to  be  any  thing  worse  than  an  error 
of  judgment,  and  which  has  never  been  proved  to  be  even 
that,  a  woman  whose  goodness  is  as  sublime  as  her  genius  is 
brilliant,  who  has  never  touched  pen  to  paper  but  for  the 
furtherance  of  truth  and  humanity — a  woman  whose  name 
is  one  of  the  brightest  gems  in  her  country's  crown,  and 
whose  light  is  gone  out  to  the  end  of  the  earth— for  such 
a  cause,  such  a  woman  was  reviled  and  maligned  by  men 
who  may  almost  be  said  to  have  owed  their  political  exist- 
ence to  her  genius.  They  had  not  even  national  spirit 
enough  to  stand  up  for  their  own  countrywoman  against  the 
assaults  of  the  British ;  but,  just  as  Hawthorne  told  us  of 
Miss  Bacon, "  Our  journalists  at  once  republished  some  of 
the  most  brutal  vituperations  of  the  English  press,  thus  pelt- 
ing their  poor  countrywoman  with  stolen  mud,"  so,  in  this 
case,  our  journalists  each  picked  up  his  handful  of  mud  and 
followed  the  English  lead,  like  a  faithful  puppy  yelping  in 
the  wake  of  a  growling  mastiff.  Oh  !  then  the  old-time  faith 
in  American  gallantry  and  American  justice  received  a  blow 
from  which  it  will  not  speedily  recover.  You  made  it  for- 
ever easier,  my  countrymen,  to  dispense  with  your  approba- 
tion and  to  encounter  your  disapproval. 

But  when  it  comes  to  the  point  of  expecting  gallantry  to 
stand  aside,  and  let  women  win,  I  demur.  Even  if  men 
might  be  counted  on  to  this  extent,  would  it  be  the  best 
thing  ?  If  a  man  advocates  a  measure  with  false  dates,  and 
misplaced  facts,  and  distorted  history,  and  obtruded  senti- 
ment, is  it  not  better  for  the  country,  and  better  even  for 
himself,  that  he  should  be  torn  to  pieces  on  the  spot  than 
that  he  should  be  salved  and  slavered  with  compliment  ? 
What  we  want  in  politics  is  real  work,  thorough  work,  hon- 
est work,  not  mere  sham.     The  woman  who  has  more  use- 


244  Womaiis  Worth 

ful  knowledge,  more  political  sagacity,  more  practical  powet 
than  men  may  be  a  real  accession  to  Legislatures,  but  any 
expectation  of  victory  founded  on  the  assumed  courtesy  of 
men  seems  to  me  at  once  futile,  and,  if  not  futile,  fatal.  It 
is  sometimes  alleged  against  Congress  that  every  man  is 
bent  on  his  own  cause,  and  no  one  thinks  of  the  universal 
interest.  But  it  is  the  best  thing  that  can  be  said  of  Con- 
gress. The  only  way  to  take  care  of  the  universal  interest 
is  for  each  one  to  take  care  of  his  own.  AVhat  is  the  coun- 
try but  the  combination  of  all  ?  The  best  way  for  Maine 
to  look  after  the  sugar  of  Louisiana  or  the  wheat  of  Minne- 
sota is  to  look  after  her  own  lumber.  Pennsylvania  fights 
tooth  and  nail  for  coal  and  iron.  Let  her  fight.  That  is 
what  she  is  in  Congress  for.  Let  Georgia  fight  tooth  and 
nail  for  cotton.  And  when  women  go,  let  them  also  go 
prepared  to  fight  tooth  and  nail.  Let  them  not  be  de- 
ceived by  any  representation  of  the  imbecility  or  the  bar- 
barity of  Congress.  Let  them  not  expect  an  easy  victory 
over  savages  or  idiots  j  and  let  them,  above  all  things,  dep- 
recate the  magnetic  captivation  of  an  admiring  auditory. 
They  should  be  prepared  to  encounter  a  body  of  men  not 
mentally  below  the  average  of  any  American  community — 
and  perhaps,  on  the  whole,  it  would  not  be  a  tempestuous 
enthusiasm  for  deliberative  assemblies  that  should  rate  them 
a  little  above — men  who,  in  social  life,  do  not,  as  a  general 
thing,  put  their  knives  in  their  mouths,  and  with  whom,  if  we 
are  to  enter  heaven  on  the  strength  of  good  character  and 
good  works,  one  would  as  soon  cast  in  his  lot  as  with  any 
other  community,  called  by  whatever  name.  But  they  should 
be  prepared  also  to  encounter  men  who,  whatever  may  be 
their  diversity  of  gifts  and  graces,  are  profoundly  in  earnest 
to  accomplish  their  own  objects,  and  to  defeat  objects  that 
conflict  with  their  own  ;  men  whose  key-note  is  competition 
rather  than  courtesy ;  who  in  the  heat  of  debate  do  not  al- 


and  Worthlessness. 

ways  defer  to  their  foes,  or  even  to  their  fn^ 
often  forcible  even  to  bluntness,  and  who  are  noi 
when  they  are  most  civil ;  men  who,  in  perfect  gooa  . 
and  quite  within  the  bounds  of  propriety,  are  wont  to  ada. 
each  other,  and  to  carry  their  own  over  their  comrades  in 
a  style  to  which  women  are  not  accustomed  from  men,  and 
by  which,  if  used  toward  themselves,  they  could  hardly  fail 
to  be  shocked.     Women  papers  have  a  way  of  enhancing 
the  merits  of  women  by  speaking  of  them  as  little-girl  re- 
porters, little-girl  sculptors,  little  Greek  professors ;  and,  if 
his  journalistic  petting  seems  a  good  and  pleasant  thing,  I 
do  not  know  that  it  does  any  especial  harm.     But  if  these 
little  girls  are  to  be  sent  to  Congress,  and  are  to  exercise 
any  but  a  belittling  influence  upon  politics,  their  little-girl- 
hood can  not  be  too  speedily  laid  aside.     They  should  di- 
vest themselves  of  every  thing  which  shadows  of  diminutive- 
ness  and  every  thing  that  borders  upon  endearment,  and 
stand  only  upon  their  knowledge,  their  sagacity,  their  prac- 
tical legislative  power. 


Woman's  Worth 


XIV. 
THE  NECESSITY  OF  FEMALE  SUFFRAGE. 

The  third  ground  on  which  the  ballot  is  demanded  for 
woman  is  that  she  needs  it  for  her  own  protection  against 
man.  Men,  left  to  themselves,  make  laws  for  women  which 
are  unjust  and  oppressive.  Women  must  have  the  law-mak- 
ing power  in  their  own  hands  in  order  to  secure  fair  play. 

I  deny  this  wholly.  I  deny  it  in  full  view  of  the  fact  that 
men  have  made  laws  unjust  to  women ;  that  the  only  fear 
of  personal  injury  felt  by  women  is  of  bad  men,  and  that  a 
very  large  part  of  the  suffering  and  sorrow  of  women  comes 
from  the  selfishness  or  ignorance  of  the  good  men  with 
whom  they  are  connected.  In  the  face  of  all  this,  I  affirm 
that  American  women,  as  a  class,  do  not  need  protection 
against  American  men,  as  a  class  ;  that,  if  they  do  need  it, 
they  will  never  get  it,  either  from  the  ballot  or  from  any 
other  source  ;  and  that,  on  the  whole,  the  law,  as  it  stands, 
is  more  favorable  to  women  than  it  would  have  been  if 
women  had  made  the  law  for  themselves. 

If  we  have  come  to  the  point  that  women  must  defend 
themselves  against  men,  we  may  as  well  give  up  the  battle 
at  once.  One  man  is  stronger  than  one  woman,  and  ten 
men  are  stronger  than  ten  women,  and  the  nineteen  mill- 
ions of  men  in  this  country  will  subdue,  capture,  and  exe- 
cute or  expel  the  nineteen  millions  of  women  just  as  soon  as 
they  set  about  it.  It  is  not  even,  like  the  suppression  of 
the  late  Rebellion,  a  question  of  time.  They  could  do  it  in 
half  an  hour  any  day!  What  is  the  use,  then,  of  women's 
talking  about  protecting  themselves  against  men  ? 


a?id  Worihkssness.  24  / 

The  slaves  of  the  South  received  the  suffrage  for  their 
protection,  but  protection  against  whom  ?  Against  the  pow- 
er that  gave  them  the  suffrage  ?  That  is  absurd.  It  is  as 
if  a  woman  should  say  to  a  man,  "  I  believe  you  are  a  bur- 
glar, and  mean  to  rob  me.  Give  me  a  gun,  that  I  may  de- 
fend myself  against  you."  If  he  means  to  rob  her,  it  is  idle 
to  expect  him  to  give  her  the  gun.  If  he  gives  her  the  gun, 
it  is  proof  that  he  is  no  burglar,  and  she  does  not  need  to 
defend  herself  against  him. 

But  women  do  not  propose  to  fight  laws  into  existence. 
They  propose  to  vote  them.  But  voting  power  is  based  on 
fighting  power.  The  rule  of  the  majority  is  at  bottom  the 
rule  of  force.  Sixty  thousand  voters  yield  to  a  hundred 
thousand  voters  not  because  they  believe  them  to  be  wiser 
than  themselves,  but  because  they  know  them  to  be  stron- 
ger. When  they  do  not  believe  them  to  be  stronger,  they  do 
not  yield.  They  resist,  and  we  have  a  rebellion.  It  is  the 
knowledge  that  there  is  a  physical  force  underneath  the 
vote  strong  enough  to  uphold  the  vote  that  gives  to  the 
vote  its  power ;  so  that  the  ballot  is  not  simply  the  expres- 
sion of  desire,  but  the  measure  of  strength.  If  the  men  of 
this  country  wish  to  oppress  the  women,  will  they  be  de- 
terred from  it  by  women's  saying  at  the  polls,  or  any  where 
else,  that  they  do  not  wish  to  be  oppressed  t  The  strength 
which  women  have  to  enforce  their  vote,  compared  with 
that  which  men  have  to  smother  it,  is  simply  contemptible. 
Until  women  can  march  faster  and  further,  and  throw  up 
earth-works  more  quickly,  and  stand  longer  in  the  trenches, 
and  fight  harder  in  the  field  than  men,  they  must  depend 
for  justice  upon  the  good  will  of  men. 

This  would  be  a  fearful  sword  hanging  over  women,  a 
most  unequal  arrangement  of  forces,  if  there  were  not  im- 
planted in  man  a  good  wiir  toward  woman  as  deep  as  his 
life,  as  strong  as  his  strength,  as  inalienable  as  himself. 


248  Woman's  Worth 

This  good  will  is  often  erratic  in  development,  in  some 
cases  seems  to  be  almost  entirely  suppressed,  in  savage 
tribes  may  be  very  feeble,  in  all  tribes  needs  wise  treatment, 
but  increases  and  flourishes  exactly  in  proportion  as  the 
higher  nature  of  man  is  developed,  and  in  civilized  and 
Christianized  countries  may  be  counted  on  Vv^ith  entire  cer- 
tainty. This  goes  a  great  way  toward  equalizing  matters. 
It  gives  to  woman  a  greater  hold  upon  man's  strength  than 
he  has  himself.  His  good  will  toward  her  is  so  great  that 
he  will  work  harder  and  endure  more  for  her  sake  than  for 
his  own.  Self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of  nature,  but 
woman -preservation  is  the  first  law  of  civilization.  The 
men  on  a  sinking  ship  will  save  the  women,  and  go  down 
themselves,  not  because  women  are  considered  more  valua- 
ble than  men,  not  for  any  reason  whatever  but  simply  be- 
cause men  never  think  of  doing  any  thing  else.  If  the  crew 
of  a  vessel  should  let  the  women  perish,  and  themselves 
sail  into  port  in  safety,  they  would  be  mobbed  at  the  first 
quay  on  which  they  landed.  When  Captain  Herndon  told 
his  men  that  he  proposed  to  save  the  women  and  go  down 
with  the  ship,  did  they  demur  ?  I  have  heard  that  they  re- 
sponded with  a  sudden  outburst  of  cheers,  heart  answering 
to  heart  with  instinctive  heroism.  I  do  not  know  how  that 
may  be,  but  they  manned  the  boats  with  a  picked  crew, 
they  sent  every  wom,an  away  to  life,  and  themselves,  four 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  men,  went  down  to  death. 

And  their  countrywomen  must  protect  themselves  against 
their  countrymen  ! 

Individual  men,  under  stress  of  temptation,  or  through  ig- 
norance, will  do  great  wrong  to  individual  women.  Men 
combined  in  society,  no  doubt,  often  unwittingly  injure  wom- 
en ;  but  I  do  not  believe  that  any  body  of  men  ever  assem- 
bled in  this  country,  or  ever  will  assemble,  with  any  purpose 
or  wish  to  wrong  or  oppress  the  women  of  the  country,  or  in 


a?id  WortJilessiidss.  249 

any  way  to  take  advantage  of  their  weakness  or  ignorance 
to  their  own  furtherance,  or  with  any  other  wish  or  purpose 
toward  women  than  to  protect  and  benefit  them. 

But  look  at  the  laws  which  men  have  made  for  women — 
the  laws  of  marriage,  the  laws  for  property,  the  laws  for  the 
guardianship  of  children !  I  do  look  at  them,  and  I  see 
them  steadily  and  even  rapidly  gathering  about  woman  to 
secure  her  freedom  and  to  protect  her  rights.  From  year 
to  year,  without  retrogression,  the  march  of  improvement 
has  gone  on.  In  no  other  respect  has  the  nation  signalized 
its  advance  more  clearly  than  in  the  ever-increasing  liberal- 
ity and  wisdom  of  its  laws  regarding  women.  Unjust  laws 
still  mar  our  statute-books,  but  the  performance  of  the  past 
is  full  of  promise  for  the  future.  There  are  states  to-day 
in  which  the  laws  not  only  protect,  but  favor  women,  and 
every  where  is  shown  a  disposition  to  redress  wrong  and 
secure  right. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  judge  of  the  motive  and  scope  of 
a  law  from  its  working  in  an  individual  case.  I  have  no 
doubt  that,  as  a  general  thing,  law  is  the  expression  of  the 
best  thought  and  the  best  purpose  of  the  age  which  enact- 
ed it.  I  have  no  doubt  that,  as  a  general  thing,  even  those 
laws  which  to-day  we  consider  disgraceful,  were  really,  in 
their  time,  the  working  of  reform  ;  were  an  improvement  on 
the  customs  which  preceded  their  establishment.  I  dare 
say,  if  we  could  know  all  about  it,  we  should  see  that  the 
law  permitting  to  the  husband  "  moderate  correction"  of  his 
wife  was  not  to  induce  husbands  to  beat  their  wives,  but  to 
restrain  them  from  beating  them  immoderately.  The  laws 
which  seem  to  give  husbands  an  undue  control  over  the 
persons,  property,  or  children  of  their  wives  were  no  doubt 
preceded  by  laws  or  customs  which  gave  unlimited  control. 
When  we  speak  indignantly  of  "  the  laws  which  men  have 
made  for  women,"  we  may  as  well  be  indignant  also  over 

L2 


250  IVofnan's  Worth 

the  laws  which  men  have  made  for  men.  Has  the  hiw  in- 
flicted any  greater  outrage  on  woman  than  it  has  on  the  in- 
nocent man  who  is  kept  in  jail  as  a  witness  while  the  crim- 
inal goes  at  large  ?  A  law  can  not  rise  much  higher  than 
the  age  and  country  which  frame  it.  It  must  partake  of 
the  defects  of  that  age.  I  do  not  know  that  there  has  ever 
been  a  time  when  the  women  of  a  nation  were  further  ad- 
vanced than  the  men  in  jurisprudence ;  and,  unless  such  a 
time  has  been,  we  have  small  reason  to  suppose  that  wom- 
en would  have  made  better  laws  than  men. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  scarcely  a  law  can  be  framed 
which  may  not  bear  hard  on  particular  cases.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  finite  beings  to  fit  laws  to  every  exigency.  They 
can,  at  best,  only  approximate  justice.  They  can  only  aim 
at  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number.  Even  where 
a  law  seems  arbitrary  and  unjust,  there  is  often  another  side 
vi^hich  is  less  opprobrious.  Looking  at  the  laws  for  mar- 
ried women,  we  must  remember  that  not  only  has  the  state 
to  consider  married  women,  but  that  husband,  children,  and 
society  have  rights  which  it  is  bound  to  respect.  If  any 
thing  seems  utterly  wicked  and  cruel,  it  is  robbing  a  mother 
of  her  children.  To-day  our  hearts  are  wrung  with  the 
story  of  a  mother  thus  robbed  by  a  legal  guardian  on  the 
occasion  of  her  second  marriage.  To-morrow  a  father  dies 
frenzied  with  grief  because  he  can  not  snatch  his  children 
from  his  divorced  wife  ;  and  his  story  is  not  a  merry  one. 
It  seemed  an  unjust  and  degrading  thing  for  a  married 
woman  not  to  be  allowed  to  hold  property  independent  of 
her  husband,  and  one  state  after  another  changed  its  laws 
to  enable  her  to  do  so ;  but  testimony  goes  to  show  that 
the  principal  practical  use  made  of  the  law,  thus  far,  has 
been  to  enable  the  husband  to  put  his  property  into  the 
hands  of  his  wife,  and  thus  live  on  the  enjoyment  of  it,  and 
do  business  on  the  strength  of  it,  without  having  it  liable 


and  Worthkssness.  251 

for  his  debts  or  subject  to  the  risks  of  his  business.  In 
Connecticut  a  woman  is  actually  thrown  into  jail  because 
she  refuses  to  give  up  her  personal  property  to  her  hus- 
band, he  and  his  two  daughters  by  a  former  marriage  being 
already  supported  on  the  proceeds  of  her  real  estate ;  and 
the  women  of  Connecticut  are  therefore  exhorted  to  arise, 
demand  equal  and  just  rights  for  both  men  and  women,  and 
banish  forever  from  your  statute-book  laws  which  can  be 
made  the  instrument  of  such  injustice !  But  in  New  York 
a  married  woman  holds,  independent  of  her  husband's  con- 
trol, thirty  thousand  dollars.  This  money  she  received  from 
him  when  he  was  in  good  business  and  in  full  health.  He 
became  paralyzed ;  and  she  at  once  took  a  paramour  and 
sailed  to  Europe,  leaving  her  husband  an  annuity  of  three 
hundred  dollars,  and  supporting  her  paramour  out  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  fortune  which  her  husband  had  given  her. 
Shall  not,  then,  the  men  of  New  York  arise  and  banish  for- 
ever from  their  statute-books  laws  which  can  be  made  the 
instrument  of  such  injustice?  When  fiction  comes  to  the 
field,  we  are  called  upon  to  sympathize  with  a  sick  husband, 
who  is  unable  to  "  tend  store"  where  he  is  partner,  but  is 
able  and  willing  to  stay  at  home,  keep  house,  "  chop  hash," 
and  mind  the  children.  The  wife  is  healthy,  able,  and  will- 
ing to  become  partner,  and  tend  store  in  her  husband's 
stead,  and  the  other  partner  is  desirous  she  should.  She 
proposes  to  buy  her  husband  out ;  but  the  laws  do  not  per- 
mit a  contract  between  husband  and  wife  ;  so  he  makes  her 
a  present  of  all  he  is  worth,  and  every  thing  goes  smoothly, 
till  it  is  suddenly  discovered  that  a  married  woman  can  not 
be  a  partner,  when  every  thing  stops,  the  husband  grows 
worse  and  worse,  they  can  think  of  nothing  to  do  but  live 
on  their  principal,  and  "  Shame  on  the  Old  Bay  State  for 
the  laws  its  men  have  made !" 

Leaving  out  of  view  the  peculiar  mental  kink  which  en* 


2^2  Wo^fiafis  Worth 

ables  them  to  devise  a  mode  of  escape  from  the  impossibil- 
ity of  a  contract  between  husband  and  wife  by  a  gift  to  the 
wife  of  all  her  husband's  property,  but  does  not  permit  them 
to  see  any  way  of  getting  a  living  unless  she  can  be  a  legal 
partner  in  the  shop,  how  easy  is  it  to  give  the  story  another 
twist !  The  sick  man  has  presented  all  his  property  to  his 
healthy  wife.  She  goes  into  the  store  under  the  new  law 
as  partner.  The  new  firm  is  unskillful  or  unfortunate,  and 
principal  and  interest  go  down  together ;  or  she  falls  in  love 
with  the  partner,  who  is  likely  to  be  more  cheerful  and  en- 
gaging than  the  sick  husband,  chopping  hash  at  home  ;  and, 
as  she  is  not  liable  for  his  support,  notwithstanding  he  has 
given  her  all  his  money — for,  while  the  laws  have  steadily 
enlarged  the  liberty  of  the  wife,  they  have  never,  I  believe, 
diminished  her  immunities  —  she  turns  him  out  of  doors, 
where  "  damp  door-step  settles  on  his  lungs,"  and  he  dies 
in  the  poor-house.  I  think  a  wife  is  just  as  likely  to  do  this 
as  a  man  is  to  put  his  wife  in  jail  for  not  giving  him  her 
money.  Or,  we  may  imagine  a  sagacious  and  fortunate 
husband  doing  business  up  town,  and  suddenly  finding  him- 
self penniless  and  his  children  beggared  by  an  ambitious, 
extravagant,  and  incapable  wife  doing  business  down  town. 
These  things  are  mentioned,  not  to  prove  that  our  laws, 
as  they  stand,  are  perfect,  but  to  indicate  that  they  may  be 
unequal  without  being  necessarily  or  intentionally  unjust ; 
to  indicate,  also,  that  there  are  on  all  these  questions  two 
sides.  Society  is  to  the  last  degree  complicated  and  deli 
cate.  The  relations  of  husband  and  wife  are  so  peculiar, 
their  interests  are  so  identical,  even  though  they  do  not 
maintain  for  each  other  a  romantic  affection,  that  I  do  not 
see  how  it  is  possible  for  the  law  to  consider  them  two  en- 
tirely distinct  and  independent  individuals,  like  two  men, 
without  injuriously  affecting  the  interests  and  claims  of  oth- 
ers.    The  Old  Testament  and  the  New  agree  in  declaring 


and  Worthlcssiiess.  253 

that  they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh ;  and  if  the  formula  were 
written  after  the  facts,  to  fit  the  case,  it  could  not  have  been 
more  concise  or  accurate.  We  can  not  legislate  for  that 
which  is  essentially  one  as  if  it  were  in  all  points  two.  Di- 
vine law  is  utterly  regardless  of  our  protests  and  insensible 
to  our  arguments,  and  holds  just  as  strong  when  we  ignore 
as  when  we  obey  it. 

No  law  exists  which  can  not  be  made  the  instrument  of 
injustice.  Under  the  best  and  wisest  laws  individuals  may 
suffer.  No  law  can  be  framed  which  shall  completely  shield 
man  or  woman  from  the  consequences  of  ignorance,  inca- 
pacity, or  folly.  You  can  place  the  control  of  property,  the 
rights  of  contract,  with  husband  or  wife,  or  both,  and  it  will 
still  remain  that,  if  a  woman  marry  a  brutal,  coarse,  selfish, 
or  lazy  man,  she  will  suffer  for  it,  in  mind,  body,  and  estate  ; 
if  a  man  marry  a  frivolous,  unprincipled,  uneducated  wom- 
an, she  will  drag  him  down.  No  change  in  laws  can  affect 
the  fact  that  in  marriage  the  character  of  the  parties  is  of 
the  first  importance,  and  the  settlement  of  their  property  is 
but  subordinate.  If  they  are  wise  and  good,  they  are  more 
likely  to  be  happy  than  if  they  are  foolish  and  selfish.  If 
they  are  sick,  they  will  suffer  more  than  if  they  are  well. 
All  that  law  can  do  is  to  help  people  as  far  as  possible 
against  the  consequences  of  folly,  weakness,  and  wicked- 
ness, whether  their  own  or  another's.  Notwithstanding  all 
the  clamor  against  it,  this  is  what  the  law  aims  to  do,  and 
what  in  large  measure  it  does.  Our  American  law  is,  in 
the  main,  beneficent,  and  not  oppressive.  It  steps  in  be- 
tween a  woman's  self- surrender  and  self-devotion  to  the 
man  she  loves  and  the  possible  consequences  of  her  act, 
and  retains  for  her  certain  rights  and  makes  for  her  certain 
claims  which  a  woman  would  seldom  think  of  doing  for  her- 
self. When  a  girl  is  in  love  with  a  man,  she  does  not 
dream  of  defending  herself  against  him.     She  would  gladly 


2  54  Woman's  Worth 

give  him  all  her  money,  and  only  wish  she  had  more  to 
give.  If  there  were  no  law  at  all  on  this  subject,  and  the 
disposition  of  her  property  were  left  to  each  wom.an  at  her 
marriage,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  she  would  relinquish  the 
whole  care  and  control  of  it  to  her  husband,  without  any 
limitation  whatever.  But  the  law  knows  what  she  does  not 
know.  To  the  law  her  hero  is  no  hero,  but  a  fallible  man, 
who  may  bring  her  to  grief  and  poverty ;  so  it  hedges  him 
about  with  restraints  which,  though  often  insufficient,  are 
greater  than  she  would  ever  impose.  There  is  no  need,  as 
there  is  no  use,  in  crying  shame  on  the  Old  Bay  State  for 
the  laws  its  men  have  made.  Defective  though  they  be, 
the  Old  Bay  State  nowhere,  on  the  whole,  makes  a  better 
figure  than  on  its  statute-books.  Nowhere  do  its  men  ap- 
pear more  conscientious,  more  bent  on  justice,  than  in  fash- 
ioning the  laws  regarding  women.  They  have  not  reached 
perfection.  They  have  not  yet  secured  equity.  Nor  do  I 
think  equity  is  to  be  secured  by  equality.  Women  ought  to 
have  more  than  equality.  They  are  heavily  weighted  in 
the  race,  and  they  ought  to  have  advantage.  The  husband 
owes  to  his  wife  support.  The  wife  does  not  owe  it  to  her 
husband.  The  law  ought  to  put  its  hand  into  the  husband's 
pocket  and  take  out  enough  for  the  wife's  maintenance, 
whether  he  will  or  not ;  but  I  can  not  see  any  reason  why 
it  should  put  its  hand  into  the  wife's  pocket  at  all.  This, 
however,  is  only  on  the  ground  that  women  and  men  are 
not  equal ;  that  man  has  the  facilities  and  woman  the  disa- 
bilities for  business  ;  that  it  is  a  man's  part,  and  not  a  wom- 
an's, to  earn  money.  If  this  is  not  so — if  men  and  women 
are  to  be  on  the  same  plane — then  I  see  not  why  the  wife 
should  not  be  responsible  for  the  husband's  support,  as  well 
as  the  husband  for  the  wife's  ;  why  her  property  should  not 
go  to  pay  his  debts  as  entirely,  as  inevitably  as  his  goes  to 
pay  hers  ;  why  she  should  not  be  equally  with  himself  liable 


and  Worthlessness.  255 

for  the  support  of  the  children  ;  why,  indeed,  there  should 
not  be  an  entire  readjustment  of  the  laws  of  property  and 
of  obligations  which  shall  involve  a  public  investigation  of 
family  affairs  compared  with  which  the  publication  of  the 
income  tax  would  seem  inoffensive  and  delightful.  How- 
ever this  maybe,  impartial  and  exhaustive  investigation  and 
fair  comparison  will  show  that  far  more  clamor  is  raised 
against  the  laws  than  the  laws  themselves  give  occasion 
for ;  that  suffering  arises  far  more  from  the  weakness  and 
wickedness  of  individuals  than  from  laws  ;  and  that,  where 
the  laws  are  still  insufficient  for  woman's  protection,  they 
are  so  not  because 'men  desire  and  design  to  injure  women, 
but  because  they  do  not  yet  know  what  is  for  benefit  and 
what  for  detriment ;  that  they  have  thought  far  more  deeply 
and  broadly  for  women  than  women  have  for  themselves ; 
that  they  have  taken  far  more  pains  to  protect  women  than 
women  have  taken  for  their  own  protection  ;  and  that  the 
earnestness,  the  vigor,  and  the  success  with  which  they  have 
adopted  and  executed  such  plans  of  reform  as  have  been 
presented  to  them  is  a  sure  sign  that  women  have  only  to 
determine  and  designate  what  is  for  their  advancement  to 
secure  it  at  the  hands  of  men. 

But  why  not  secure  it  for  themselves  rather  than  ask  men 
to  secure  it  for  them?  Why  retair,  women  in  a  state  of 
tutelage,  not  to  say  pupilage  ?  Without  detracting  from  the 
wisdom  and  good  will  of  man,  why  not  add  to  it  the  wis- 
dom, self-knowledge,  and  self-interest  of  woman  ?  Admit- 
ting that  women  alone  would  do  no  better  than  men  alone, 
it  may  still  remain  that  men  and  women  together  are  worth 
more  than  either  alone.  If  we  agree  that  men  do  not  know 
what  women  need  and  want  until  women  tell  them,  why 
not  ally  them  at  the  ballot-box,  permit  woman  there  to  ex- 
press her  v/ill,  and  thus  do  the  work  directly,  rather  than 
keep  her  away  from  the  polls,  and  execute  her  will  only  by 
the  roundabout  method  of  man's  agency  .<* 


256  Woman's  Worth 

Simply  because  man's  agency  seems  a  more  direct  and 
economical  way  than  woman's  personal  action.  Compared 
with  the  whole  mass  of  law,  that  part  of  it  which  bears,  or 
even  which  seems  to  bear,  unjustly  on  woman  is  very  small. 
A  woman  might  as  well  turn  farmer,  and  undertake  the 
plowing  and  ditching  herself,  because  she  wants  a  tulip-bed, 
as  undertake  the  whole  field  of  politics  because  the  part 
which  relates  to  her  needs  fresh  seeding  down.  In  general, 
it  will  be  admitted  by  all  that  the  property  interests  of  man 
and  woman,  except  as  affected  by  marriage,  are  identical. 
The  greater  portion  of  the  law  and  of  politics  concerns 
matters  in  which  the  claims  of  man  and  woman  are  not  an- 
tagonistic. In  all  our  international,  and  in  the  greater  part 
of  our  national  affairs,  the  best  thing  for  men  is  the  best 
thing  for  women.  In  the  establishment  of  peace  or  the  dec- 
laration of  war,  men  have  certainly  as  much  at  stake  as 
women.  In  the  adjustment  of  the  tariff,  in  the  disposition 
of  public  lands,  in  the  regulation  of  national  banks,  of  inter- 
nal revenue,  of  civil  service,  of  commerce  and  navigation, 
of  municipal  government,  men  have  no  interests  distinct 
from  those  of  women.  Those  decisions  and  that  legislation 
which  advance  the  prosperity  of  men,  advance  equally  the 
prosperity  of  women,  whether  they  are  active  business  man- 
agers or  mere  owners  of  property.  In  these  matters,  per- 
haps, the  question  of  sex  enters  not  at  all.  In  most  of 
them  a  majority  of  women  take  no  interest,  nor  does  it  seem 
essential  that  they  should.  They  are  matters  on  which 
twenty  men  may  throw  as  much  light  as  ten  men  and  ten 
women.  A  man  may  be  profoundly  ignorant  of  the  temper- 
ament and  nature  of  woman,  and  yet  be  wise  in  respect  to 
laying  taxes  on  iron  and  steel ;  but  if  women  are  to  inform 
themselves  and  to  vote  on  the  few  questions  which  directly 
concern  them,  they  must  do  it  also  on  the  many  questions 
wliich  concern  them  but  indirectly.     In  giving  an  account 


and  Worthlessness,  257 

of  her  labors,  one  of  the  female-suffrage  missionaries  report- 
ed that  she  found  among  women  scarcely  any  opposition,  but 
a  great  deal  of  ignorance.  They  seemed  to  have  heard  little 
about  the  movement  going  on  to  secure  them  the  ballot;  but 
when  she  explained  the  case,  they  admitted  that  it  was  rea- 
sonable, and  put  their  names  to  her  petition.  But  after  the 
suffrage  is  secured  the  same  work  of  instruction  must  be 
wrought  upon  these  women  to  show  them  how  to  direct 
their  effort  for  the  amelioration  of  the  laws.  If  this  mis- 
sionary had  made  a  digest  of  all  the  objectionable  state 
laws  ;  had  shown  where  they  were  oppressive,  and  how  they 
should  be  altered  to  secure  justice  and  dignity  to  woman, 
without  injuring  any  other  class  ;  had  embodied  this  in  a  pe- 
tition to  the  Legislature,  and  had  then  gone  around  among 
women  explaining  her  design,  and  asking  their  signatures, 
would  she  not  have  helped  women  far  more  directly  and 
speedily  ?  I  do  not  believe  a  single  state  Legislature  exists 
which  would  dare  to  refuse,  or  which  would  even  wish  to  re- 
fuse, any  thing  for  which  the  women  of  their  state  should 
thus  express  a  desire  —  the  women  of  the  state ;  not,  of 
course,  any  mere  clique  of  women.  If  they  would  refuse  it, 
they  certainly  would  not  give  women  the  ballot.  If  they 
would  not  let  women  have  their  way  in  one  thing,  it  is  not 
probable  they  would  put  into  their  hands  an  instrument 
whereby  they  might  get  their  way  in  all  things.  If  they 
would  not  refuse  it,  then  women  have  a  method  whereby 
they  can  speak  their  minds,  when  they  have  any,  and  yet 
need  not  be  obliged  to  make  up  their  minds  on  points  to 
which  they  are  indifferent.  It  is  only  now  and  then  that 
questions  come  up  for  which  women  naturally  care.  On 
those  occasions  they  find  no  difficulty  in  expressing  them- 
selves. Perhaps  they  come  out  with  all  the  more  influence 
because  they  come  but  seldom.  No  one  had  any  doubt 
what  women  thought,  how  they  loved,  on  which  side  they 


258  Woman's  Worth 

stood,  during  the  late  war.  Alike  North  and  South  they 
made  themselves  felt  as  strongly  without  the  ballot-box  as 
men  did  with  it.  On  the  question  of  protection  or  free 
trade  they  have  said  little  ;  perhaps  because  they  have  not 
the  power  to  vote,  but  perhaps  also  because  they  have  little 
to  say,  and  what  little  they  have  they  find  just  as  well  said 
to  their  hand.  On  the  subject  of  ship-building  they  feel  no 
enthusiasm ;  the  salt  of  San  Domingo  does  not  arouse  their 
sympathy. 

But  women,  it  is  said,  ought  not  to  be  in  the  attitude  of 
petitioners.  It  is  not  dignified  for  them  to  beg  men  to  do 
for  them  what  they  have  a  right  to  do  for  themselves.  But 
they  are  petitioners  in  any  case.  They  must  beg  even  for 
the  vote.  Right  or  wrong,  men  have  the  power,  and  women 
have  it  not.  It  is  no  more  undignified  to  ask  man  to  reach 
you  an  apple  from  the  shelf,  than  it  is  to  ask  him  to  place 
his  footstool  for  you  to  stand  on  and  reach  it  yourself.  Do 
you  say  that  the  apple  is  as  much  yours  as  his,  and  ought 
never  to  have  been  put  out  of  your  reach .''  But  it  is  out  of 
your  reach,  and  you  can  not  get  it  unless  he  gives  it  to  you. 
That  fact  is  as  fixed  as  fate,  and  women  had  as  much  part 
in  fixing  it  so  as  men. 

We  talk  as  if  the  present  state  of  society  were  the  result 
of  some  arbitrary  outside  influence,  which  has  repressed  and 
altered  the  nature  of  things.  Women,  we  say,  are  equal  to 
men,  but  they  have  been  subdued  to  inferiority  by  wrong 
training  and  false  public  opinion.  Men,  it  is  true,  have 
done  the  great  deeds,  but  women  have  never  had  a  fair 
chance.  Give  them  the  same  education  and  the  same  tra- 
ditions that  men  have,  and  put  men  to  the  narrow  life  and 
petty  service  of  women,  and  we  should  soon  see  what  we 
should  see. 

Very  true  ;  and  yet,  if  women  are  naturally  equal  to  men, 
how  came  they  to  be  actually  unequal?     Who  prescribed 


and  Worthlessness.  259 

tlie  wrong  training,  and  who  made  the  false  opinion,  and 
how  came  women  into  the  narrow  path  ?  Man  and  woman 
started  in  life  together.  If  they  were  equal,  why  did  she  not 
show  her  hand  ?  There  was  no  public  opinion  then  to  warp 
her  thought.  Eve  had  just  as  good  an  education  as  Adam. 
No  petty  traditional  cares  came  to  belittle  her  purpose  or 
to  fritter  away  her  days.  That  was  the  time  for  her  to  make 
a  stand,  if  she  proposed  to  make  one  at  all.  After  all  these 
years,  it  is  no  use  to  cry  out  that  she  could  do  all  things  if 
she  only  had  the  chan-ce.  She  had  the  chance  once,  and 
she  did  not  do  them.  This  is  the  simple  fact,  and  no 
amount  of  rhetoric  alters  it.  Men  have  made  the  discover- 
ies, and  invented  the  machinery,  and  built  the  cities,  and 
acquired  the  honors,  and  subdued  the  world,  because  they 
could.  Women  have  not,  because  they  could  not.  Men 
are  masters  of  the  situation  because  they  are  stronger  than 
women,  and  there  is  no  good  in  beating  about  the  bush. 
Men  have  the  education  because  they  would  have  it.  They 
have  not  the  thousand  small  cares  because  they  would  not 
have  them.  Women  have  had  neither  the  strength  to  grasp 
the  one  nor  to  reject  the  other.  What  men  gave  them  they 
took,  and  what  men  refused  them  they  went  without,  and 
they  could  not  help  themselves.  Nor  has  any  thing  yet 
happened  to  invalidate  this  superiority.  If  women  attempt 
to  measure  swords  with  men,  they  will  be  beaten.  If  woman 
could  not  hold  her  own  against  man  in  the  beginning,  she 
can  not  hold  her  own  now.  Things  are  as  they  are,  not 
from  any  outside  interference,  but  from  their  own  inherent 
nature.     There  is  nobody  outside  but  God. 

In  competition  with  man,  woman  makes  no  show  at  all. 
If  that  is  her  case,  she  has  no  case.  All  prophecy  of  what 
she  will  do  goes  for  nothing  in  face  of  the  fact  that  for  six 
thousand  years  she  has  not  done  it.  No  possible  legisla- 
tion, no  conceivable  contingency  can  give  her  a  fairer  field, 


26o  Woman's  Worth 

a  more  equal  position  with  man  than  she  had  at  the  begin- 
ning. 

My  inference  is  that  her  work  lies  in  another  direction. 
Her  field  is  on  another  plane.  I  believe  in  her  glory,  hon- 
or, and  immortality ;  and  I  believe  profoundly  and  unalter- 
ably in  her  superiority  to  man,  but  not  in  the  role  of  man. 

When  it  is  objected  that  if  women  vote  on  the  few  points 
in  which  they  are  interested  they  must  also  vote  on  the 
many  points  in  which  they  are  not  interested,  the  reply  is 
made  that  they  ought  to  be  interested  in  all.  Women  are 
equally  concerned  with  men  in  the  character  of  government. 
They  ought  to  have  an  equal  knowledge  of,  and  an  equal 
share  in  politics.  To  say  that  they  have  no  desire  to  vote 
amounts  to  no  more  than  did  the  old  slaveholding  assertion 
that  the  slaves  did  not  desire  to  be  free.  Speaking  of  this 
alleged  unwillingness,  one  of  the  leaders  says,  "  As  if  this, 
being  true,  justified  the  domination  of  the  strong,  and  the 
servile  acquiescence  of  the  weak  !  As  if  this,  being  true, 
did  not  prove  an  immense  loss  of  self-respect,  self-control, 
personal  independence,  and  wholesome  responsibility  on 
the  part  of  the  women  thus  ignobly  praised  !" 

But  I  utterly  repudiate  the  idea  that  the  unwillingness  of 
women  to  vote  implies  servility  or  a  lack  of  self-respect. 
There  may  be  thoughtless  and  spiritless  women  who  care 
nothing  about  it  one  way  or  the  other,  and  there  appear  to  be 
those  who  think  hostility  to  it  a  winning  and  womanly  thing. 
But  beyond  these  stand  the  women  who  think,  and  think  the 
other  way ;  who,  whether  or  not  pecuniarily  dependent,  are 
mentally  independent ;  who  are  resolute  and  self-possess- 
ed. When  of  such  women  we  predicate  servile  acquies- 
cence in  the  domination  of  the  strong,  we  speak  nonsense. 
No  line  of  argument  in  the  suffrage  cause  is  more  fatuous 
than  that  which  assumes  the  women  of  this  country  to  be  in 
any  sense  slaves.     If  the  laws  on  the  statute-books  were 


and  Worthless f less.  2  G 1 

forty  times  worse  than  they  are,  it  would  be  equally  fatuous. 
Such  an  assumption  is  an  insult,  and  no  argument.  It  has 
scarcely  truth  enough  to  sting.  It  hardly  arouses  resent- 
ment ;  it  slightly  excites  contempt ;  it  never  convinces  the 
reason.  It  may  inflame  the  suffering,  and  impose  upon  the 
weak,  but  it  does  not  advance  the  cause  in  those  quarters 
where  advance  must  be  made  if  the  result  is  to  be  benefi- 
cial. The  women  of  this  country  are  as  free  in  word  and 
deed  as  the  men,  so  far  as  the  ballot  affects  freedom.  Their 
ownership  of  property  is  in  many  cases  as  absolute,  and 
where  there  is  a  difference,  it  is  a  difference  of  degree,  not 
.of  kind.  The  wife  does  not  hold  her  property  free  from  her 
husband's  control,  but  neither  does  he  hold  his  free  from 
her  control.  The  restrictions  may  not  be  equal,  but  both 
are  restricted,  each  by  the  other.  By  a  foolishly-worded 
marriage-vow — a  relic  of  barbarism — she  promises  to  obey 
him  J  but  she  is  just  as  legally  married  without  the  promise, 
and  when  she  does  make  it,  it  never  practically  amounts  to 
any  thing.  If  she  will,  she  will,  and  if  she  won't,  she 
won't.  Her  obedience  or  her  command  depend  upon  her 
disposition  and  character,  and  upon  those  of  her  husband. 
Wives,  and  perhaps  women,  are  to  some  extent  forbidden 
to  hold  office;  but  it  is  not  wholly  because  they  are  women, 
nor  necessarily  because  women  are  considered  inferior  to 
men.  Many  men  are  equally  forbidden,  and  some  men  by 
reason  of  no  inferiority.  All  members  of  both  houses  of 
Congress  are  legally  disqualified  for  holding  office  during 
their  term  of  service,  but  it  involves  no  discourtesy  to  the 
members.  The  idea  which  underlies  the  law  is  doubtless 
that  one  man  can  not  well  perform  the  two  sets  of  duties, 
and  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  this  is  precisely 
the  idea  which  underlies  the  legal  disqualification  of  women. 
Looking  at  their  actual  social  status  in  this  country,  it  is  as 
easy  to  believe  that  they  are  forbidden  on  account  of  the 


262  Woman's  Worth 

superior  service  which  they  render  to  the  state  in  other  di- 
rections, and  with  which  office-holding  might  conflict,  as  it 
is  to  believe  that  they  are  forbidden  on  account  of  inferior- 
ity, or  for  the  purpose  of  enslavement.  Women  know  that 
they  are  not  slaves.  Bad  as  are  some  of  the  laws  in  some 
of  the  states,  there  is  none  in  which  women  do  not  possess 
the  essentials  of  liberty ;  none  in  which  a  woman  may  not 
exercise  entire  freedom  of  thought,  of  word,  and,  for  the 
most  part,  of  deed,  hampered  only  by  bonds  which  are  the 
results  of  her  own  acts  or  character.  All  the  laws  which 
unjustly  restrict  her  she  may  in  the  most  public  manner 
denounce,  and  use  all  her  efforts  to  destroy,  and  to  substi- 
tute for  them  such  as  are  just,  while  the  changes  which 
have  been  effected  in  these  later  years  show  that  denuncia- 
tion is  not  the  dashing  of  impotent  rage  against  an  immova- 
ble body,  but  may  become  a  skillful  instrument  for  fashion- 
ing the  grim  block  into  a  shapely  statue.  To  say  that 
woman  has  no  voice  in  making  the  laws  which  govern  her 
is  not  correct.  She  has  no  vote,  but  in  every  other  respect 
she  has  a  voice  as  free,  and  clear,  and  penetrating  as  man's. 
To  inform  the  mother  of  a  family,  the  woman  who  stands  at 
the  head,  ruling,  guiding,  watching,  influencing,  controlling 
her  husband  in  twenty  matters  for  one  in  which  he  controls 
her,  taking  in  society  precisely  the  position  which  her  abili- 
ties fit  her  to  take,  that  she  is  a  slave,  or  even  a  child ;  to 
tell  a  woman  who  does  not  take  the  position  for  which  she 
is  fitted  because  she  has  not  leisure,  who  spends  the  long 
days  in  serving,  and  cooking,  and  care-taking  for  little  chil- 
dren who  do  not  know  enough  to  be  thankful,  and  for  a  hard- 
working husband  who  has  all  his  life  been  used  to  seeing 
women  work,  and  is  not  overmuch  troubled  thereby,  who  is 
an  equal  partner  in  the  family  firm,  and  whose  mmd  has 
equal  force  in  the  family  councils ;  to  tell  a  woman  whose 
life  has  been  one  long  grind  of  endurance  from  a  tyrannic- 


and  Worthlessness.  263 

al,  miserly,  petty  husband ;  to  tell  a  young  girl,  free  and 
merry,  or  an  unmarried  woman  of  mature  years,  of  active 
life,  of  definite  purpose,  or  "  anxious  and  aimless,"  through 
lack  of  purpose,  that  they  are  one  and  all  slaves  because 
they  can  not  vote,  argues  an  indistinctness  of  vision  or  a 
misuse  of  words  that  bodes  ill  to  any  cause.  It  gives  a 
made-up  air  to  the  whole  grievance.  It  looks  as  if  there 
were  no  ground  of  complaint.  It  looks  as  if  women  were 
so  well  off  that  real  fault  could  not  be  found  with  their  con- 
dition, and  therefore  a  demonstration  is  arranged  to  prove 
that  they  are  logically  what  really  every  one  knows  that  they 
are  not,  and  what,  without  the  denunciation,  no  one  would 
ever  suspect  them  of  being.  Unhappily,  there  are  restric- 
tions which  ought  to  be  removed — restrictions  from  which 
these  false  issues  divert  attention,  and  to  whose  removal 
they  become  therefore  real  obstacles. 

It  is  only  the  most  stupid  and  degraded  of  slaves  who 
are  content  with  slavery,  who  do  not  wish  to  be  free.  Do 
the  advocates  of  woman  suffrage  know  what  they  are  doing 
when  they  likcD  their  opponents  to  such.?  Do  they  know 
what  sort  of  woman  it  is  upon  whom  they  attempt  to  fasten 
the  stigma  of  serviUty  1  Do  they  understand  the  meaning 
of  words  when  they  assume  the  monopoly  of  self-respect 
and  self-control,  and  deny  their  possession  to  all  other 
women  ? 


264  Woman's  Worth 


XV. 

EXEMPTION  OR  IMPOSITION. 

In  the  discussion  of  female  suffrage,  we  hear  much  about 
the  privileges  and  honors  of  politics,  little  about  its  duties  j 
much  about  the  injustice  which  debars  women  from  its 
emoluments,  little  about  the  justice  which  exempts  women 
from  its  demands.  It  will  not  be  denied  that  political  pow- 
er makes  severe  demands  and  prescribes  exacting  duties. 
To  conduct  this  great  nation,  with  its  varied  interests,  its 
clashing  nationalities,  its  numerous  sub-governments,  its 
wide-stretching  territories — to  bear  it  on  from  day  to  day 
without  bankruptcy,  without  impinging  upon  other  nations, 
without  falling  a  prey  to  the  conflicting  claims  of  its  own 
members — this  is  no  sinecure.  It  employs  a  large  class  of 
the  best  men  in  the  country,  it  secures  the  best  thoughts  of 
another  large  class  of  best  men,  it  occupies  a  large  share  of 
the  attention  and  interest  of  every  intelligent  and  conscien- 
tious man,  and  in  the  last  resort  its  call  is  paramount  to  all 
others.  The  moment  that  women  have  the  power  to  vote, 
all  this  responsibility  devolves  equally  upon  them.  It  be- 
comes at  once  their  duty  to  inform  themselves  on  every  po- 
litical subject,  to  hold  themselves  ready  to  answer  the  sum- 
mons to  all  political  service.  It  is  true  that  men  do  not. 
Men,  untaught,  unaccustomed  to  logical  thinking,  preju- 
diced and  opinionated,  vote  ignorantly,  blindly.  Intelligent 
and  honest  men  decline  political  duty,  and  even  plume 
themselves  on  it,  though  the  public  receive  harm  in  conse- 
quence.    But  women  are  entering  the  arena  not  to  imitate 


and  Worthkssness.  265 

men,  but  to  improve  upon  them  ;  not  to  do  things  as  they  are 
done,  but  as  they  ought  to  be  done.  Ignorant  legislation  is 
already  our  great  menace.  Women  are  not  to  increase  its 
quantity.  They  will  be,  equally  with  men,  recreant  to  their 
trust  unless  they  comprehend  intelligently  all  the  issues 
upon  which  they  pronounce  decision,  and  pronounce  de- 
cision upon  all  the  issues  submitted  to  their  judgment. 

Hitherto  man  has  done  this  work  alone.  We  must  give 
him  the  credit  of  never  having  asked  woman  to  share  it  with 
him.  If  he  has  claimed  its  honors,  he  has  at  least  borne  its 
burdens.  If  he  has  never  suffered  woman  to  rule,  he  has 
never  asked  her  to  serve.  He  has  repeatedly  blundered 
into  war,  but  he  has  fought  it  out  himself. 

To  my  thinking  this  is  simply  as  it  should  be,  I  give 
man  no  credit  for  generosity,  only  for  justice.  He  ought  to 
do  this  work,  for  woman  has  another  work  to  do,  by  virtue 
of  which  she  stands  exempt  from  this.  Her  part  is  more 
severe,  more  exacting,  more  important  than  his.  He  may 
well  take  upon  himself  the  whole  burden  of  business,  po- 
litical and  pecuniary ;  she  more  than  offsets  it  in  bearing 
the  burden  of  motherhood.  This,  with  what  it  involves,  de- 
mands, and  permits,  is  so  onerous  that  all  other  task-work 
laid  upon  her  is  unnatural.  I  would  absolve  her  from  every 
thing  except  that  v/hich  ministers  directly  to  the  spiritual 
life  of  the  race.  Nature  has  spoken  here  with  a  clearness 
which  it  is  impossible  to  mistake,  with  a  force  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  resist. 

So  many  witless,  wicked,  and  unclean  words  have  been 
uttered  in  these  latter  days  touching  woman's  place,  that  no 
folly,  no  madness  even,  on  the  part  of  women  ought  to  ex- 
cite surprise.  When  a  mother,  who  has  brought  up  children 
to  usefulness  and  honor,  rises  on  the  platform  to  give  her 
opinion  as  to  what  is  best  for  women,  and  clergymen  of 
moderate  abilities  and  precarious  position  tell  her  in  reply 

M 


266  WomarCs  Worth 

that  her  true  work  is  to  go  home  and  take  care  of  her  chil- 
dren, or  that  she  is  advocating  free  love,  the  destruction  of 
marriage,  and  the  dissolution  of  society,  one  feels  that  argu- 
ment would  be  thrown  away,  and  that  the  true  womanly  and 
fitting  response  would  be,  in  the  language  of  the  poet, 

"  To  take  them  as  you  would  mischievous  boys, 
And  shake  their  heads  together." 

When  our  religious  teachers  count  it  a  praiseworthy  thing 
to  turn  the  most  austere  and  momentous  service  of  woman- 
hood into  a  means  of  acquiring  property,  and  hold  up  the 
example  for  imitation,  it  is  idle  to  reproach  women  for  infi- 
delity. If  female  suffrage  obtains  to-morrow,  its  most  effect- 
ual caUing  will  have  been  from  pulpits  and  religious  news- 
papers which  denounced  it.  Ministers  are  sometimes  re- 
proached for  confining  themselves  too  closely  to  the  sins  of 
past  ages,  and  letting  the  sins  of  the  present  go  unchecked. 
But,  listening  to  a  suffrage  sermon,  one  mentally  exclaims, 
"  Oh,  if  they  only  would  never  come  nearer  to  us  than  Neb- 
uchadnezzar !"  The  mouthings  of  mountebanks  are  neither 
here  nor  there  ;  but  when  clergymen,  even  of  parts  and  cul- 
ture, undertake  to  preach  woman,  it  is  fearful  and  wonder- 
ful to  see  what  paralysis  comes  upon  their  perception,  what 
mildew  blights  their  judgment,  what  dry-rot  falls  upon  their 
reason.  Men  may  keep  up  any  kind  of  a  thinking,  but  all 
they  have  a  right  to  say  is, "  We  will  not  be  an  obstacle  to 
women.  Whenever  the  majority  signify  a  desire  to  exercise 
the  right  of  suffrage,  we  will  not  resist."  If  they  wish  to 
preach  down  woman  suffrage,  the  way  is  to  let  women  alone 
and  preach  to  men,  curbing  their  selfishness,  enlightening 
their  ignorance,  showing  them  how  to  be  so  pure,  so  gentle, 
so  just,  so  wise,  so  strong  that  women  shall  be  confident 
and  comfortable,  free  from  anxiety  and  toil,  never  tempted 
or  forced  by  man's  inefficiency  to  put  their  shoulder  to  his 
wheel,  but,  gratified,  satisfied,  elated  with  the  way  he  does 


and  Worthies S7iess.  '269 

his  work,  and  content  and  delighted  to  devote  themselvoss  to 
their  own.  f 

As  I  do  not  desire  at  present  to  have  an  ecclesiaslticai 
war  on  my  hands,  I  make  only  this  slight  allusion  in  jvmss- 
ing  ;  but,  from  a  general  survey,  it  would  not  be  fair  to  l\eave 
out  the  material  aid  which  the  woman  party  has  received 
from  the  clergy,  and  the  corresponding  obstacles  which  its 
opponents  have  been  obliged  to  surmount.  s 

But  fallacy  can  not  change  facts.  It  still  remains  hhat 
the  one  divine  institution,  changed  by  no  times,  weakepned 
by  no  sophistry,  profaned  by  no  barter,  is  the  family,  j  In 
motive  and  method  it  most  nearly  approaches  our  ideaj'l  of 
God's  idea.  Of  this,  all  other  governments,  national,  sv.ate, 
municipal,  are  but  a  clumsy  and  cumbrous  imitation.  Crc  iwn- 
ing  this  fact  rises  another  which  no  impertinence  of  repeti- 
tion aifects,  that  this  is  woman's  kingdom.  Man  is  anj  im- 
portant ofhcer,  but  woman  is  the  reigning  monarch.  H,e  is 
the  prime  minister  whose  wisdom  makes  the  kingdom  pfros- 
perous.  He  is  the  brilliant  general  whose  exploits  brin»ig  it 
renown.  He  is  the  unprofitable  servant  whose  weakness 
drags  it  to  the  dust.  1 

In  this  kingdom  woman  is  not  only  sovereign,  but  sover- 
eign-mother. Man's  work,  if  necessary,  she  can  make  s,,hift 
to  do  after  a  fashion.  Her  work  he  can  not  do  at  all.  What- 
ever of  toil  and  sacrifice  a  man  renders  for  his  famil};',  a 
woman  can  also  render ;  but  beyond  this  she  bears  a  tiur- 
den,  above  this  she  wields  a  power  which  he  can  never  'as-. 
sume.  In  the  tabernacle  of  life  man  dwells  in  the  outer 
courts,  woman  ministers  at  the  holy  of  holies.  Her  initlu- 
ence  upon  humanity  is  so  primal,  so  intimate,  so  dominamt, 
that  it  might  seem  almost  divine.  She  is  second  only!  to 
the  Creator. 

Herein  lies  her  superiority.  In  coarse  and  common  se  rv- 
ice,  in  the  race  of  the  swift  and  the  battle  of  the  strong. 


2     '  Woman's  Worth 

man  tmmeasurably  outstrips  her.  In  the  higher  service  of 
love,  iwhich  lies  above  battle-field  and  race-course,  of  whose 
mini',stry  God  himself  is  the  only  perfect  exemplar,  she  holds 
a  po&.)ition  so  advanced  that  man  is  not  even  her  competitor. 

Fr^m  such  a  point  the  question  is  not.  Have  not  women 
a  rig^it  to  enter  upon  the  arena  of  politics  ?  but,  Have  men  a 
right  to  demand  that  women  shall  enter  that  arena  ?  From 
such  ]  a  point  I  not  only  admit,  but,  if  called  upon,  avow,  that 
womt  3n  as  truly  as  men  have  the  right  to  vote,  but,  above 
and  obeyond  this,  they  have  a  higher  right  which  men  can 
not  (vlaim — the  right  not  to  vote. 

N(e5ver  do  I  more  regret  the  dishonor  into  which  wom- 
an's rwork  has  fallen — or,  shall  I  say,  out  of  which  it  has  not 
yet  3;  .risen — never  appears  a  misapprehension  of  values  so 
great-:  and  fatal  as  when  I  hear  a  woman  publicly  espouse 
the  )Suffrage  cause  by  saying,  "  No  longer  will  woman  be 
contpent  merely  to  rear  a  family,  and  drudge  and  die." 
Mer-ely  to  rear  a  family  !  When  women  come  to  look  upon 
the  -^rearing  of  a  family  as  a  small  thing,  we  are  indeed  far 
fron]i  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  We  have  groveled  to  sad 
pur  pose  if  the  little  needs,  the  petty  cares,  the  mere  materi- 
al i  service  which  attend  all  families,  and  which  dominate  so 
mai|^y,  have  made  themselves  to  represent  family  Xii^.nYo 
reai^;  a  family,  to  establish  a  home,  to  make  domestic  life 
whr  It  it  ought  to  be,  to  give  it  that  part  in  the  social  struc- 
ture :i,  in  national  excellence,  in  the  elevation  of  humanity 
whi  ch  belongs  to  it,  and  for  which  there  is  no  substitute,  is 
an  I  Dbject  worthy  the  ambition  and  the  energies  of  th^  best 
and  wisest  woman  that  ever  was  or  ever  will  be  born^j  The 
gre  at  work  of  both  man  and  woman  is  the  fashioning  of  im- 
mCTtal  beings  ;  but  what  can  be  done  through  business  and 
po  litics,  though  necessary,  is  but  feeble  and  far  off  compared 
witj  h  what  can  be  done  in  the  family.  Nature,  with  infinite 
pa.'ms  and  mfinite  delicacy,  has  given  woman  a  peculiar  fit- 


and  Worthkssness.  269 

ness  for  this  work,  and  a  peculiar  unfitness  for  every  other. 
What  I  want  is  that  we  should  heed  nature,  and  magnify  the 
office  of  woman.  My  claim  is  that  all  the  rough,  clashing, 
confusing  work  outside  and  inside — not  only  that  which 
men  now  do,  but  a  great  deal  of  that  which  is  done  by  wom- 
en, shall  be  assumed  by  men,  that  women  may  be  left  tran- 
quil, and  free,  and  fine  for  the  delicate  touches.  Homes  are 
defective,  harsh,  forbidding,  uninfluential,  because  the  wom- 
en who  should  preside  over  them  are  cumbered  with  much 
serving  in  them.  It  disturbs  me  little  to  hear  men  say  that 
if  women  vote  they  must  also  trade,  and  toil,  and  fight. 
Thousands  of  women  could  hardly  find  life  more  stern  than 
it  is,  and  it  savors  of  hypocrisy  for  men  to  warn  off  from  the 
political  field  by  prophecies  of  hardship  women  who  are  al- 
ready well-nigh  overborne  by  hardship,  and  who  only  look 
that  way  longing  for  relief  But  what  shall  I  say  when  wom- 
en tell  me  that  the  nature  of  woman  demands  the  toil,  and 
trade,  and  strife  of  the  outside  world  as  a  higher  and  better 
thing  than  the  mechanisms  of  the  soul  ?  I  claim  that  wom- 
en have  a  right  to  be  independent  of  those  upon  whom  they 
have  no  claim,  and  of  the  brutality  of  those  upon  whom  they 
have  a  claim,  but  a  higher  and  sweeter,  a  divine  right  to  be 
dependent  upon  those  to  whom  such  dependence  is  a  savor 
of  life  unto  life,  and  for  the  sake  of  those  whose  dear  cher- 
ishing, whose  moral  life,  and  highest  happiness,  and  finest 
growth  make  such  dependence  necessary.  But  if  women 
disdain  their  prerogative,  and  choose  to  minister  unto  them- 
selves in  carnal  things  rather  than  minister  unto  others  spir- 
itual things!  Men  speak  often  as  if  the  responsibility  and 
result  of  home  and  family  rested  on  woman.  I  deny  it  ab- 
solutely, seeing  nowhere  in  nature  any  indication  of  it,  be- 
lieving that  the  stake  is  too  great  to  be  left  to  either  sex,  but 
demands  the  harmonious  efforts  of  both  ;  and  believing  that 
man's  part,  though  less  absorbing,  less  difficult,  and  in  some 


270  Woman's  Worth 

sense  less  honorable  than  woman's,  is  no  less  incumbent  on 
him.  Men  deprecate  high  education  for  women,  fancying  it 
unfits  them  to  be  good  housewives.  I  crave  the  highest,  if  for 
no  other  reason,  that  they  may  thus  be  fitted  to  be  good  house- 
wives. Do  boys  need  a  liberal  education  to  become  skillful 
in  their  profession  ?  Women  need  it  as  much  to  become 
skillful  in  theirs.  No  calling  can  absorb  more  wealth  of  re- 
source than  the  woman's  calling.  None  counts  wisdom 
more  vital,  folly  more  fatal.  All  knowledge  is  its  province. 
Whatever  tends  to  enlarge  the  mind,  as  well  as  to  increase 
the  sympathy,  belongs  to  woman.  Politics,  art,  science,  all 
are  hers,  subject  only  to  her  choice,  subordinate  always  to 
her  freedom.  She  may  be  poet,  painter,  philosopher,  sea- 
captain,  sempstress,  lawyer,  lecturer — whatever  she  has  im- 
pulse and  power  to  become ;  but  none  of  these  things  shall 
be  laid  upon  her,  for  upon  her  the  Creator  has  laid  another 
work  which  has  the  right  to  exclude  them  all.  She  shall 
have  the  widest  scope  for  selection,  and  ample  opportunity 
for  preparation,  whatever  career  she  select ;  real  power  in 
any  direction  is  power  in  this.  And  so  certain  is  nature  to 
secure  her  aims,  that  all  the  impulse  which  women  feel  in  all 
other  directions  is  insignificant  compared  with  the  common 
impulse  which  moves  them  in  this.  Whether  a  woman  gath- 
ers a  family  around  her,  or  whether  she  sits  "  on  winter 
nights  by  solitary  fires,"  is  but  an  incident ;  but  she  was  or- 
ganized without  regard  to  incident.  Her  strength  and  her 
weakness  point  in  one  direction.  Humanity  is  her  field. 
Deeper  than  her  choice,  more  remote  than  her  will,  lie  the 
sources  of  her  power. 

When  we  plan  to  impose  upon  women  the  whole  new 
world  of  politics,  from  what  department  do  we  plan  to  re- 
lease her  in  order  to  equalize  the  duties  of  men  and  women? 
My  hope  is  that  she  may  move  surely  onward,  out  of  her  for- 
eign bondage  to  degrading  tasks  into  native  freedom  for  el- 


and  Worthldssness.  271 

evating  work,  I  am  willing  even  to  journey  through  the 
wilderness  of  trade  and  mechanics,  and  to  admit  that,  for 
some,  there  may  be  no  other  w^ay  to  the  Promised  Land ; 
but  I  can  not  admit  that  the  wilderness  is  Canaan  except 
in  comparison  with  Egypt.  I  see  in  the  advocacy  of  suf- 
frage no  attempt  to  lift  off  old  burdens,  but  only  to  add 
new.  From  no  kind  of  toil  is  there  any  movement  to  free 
woman,  but  only  to  bring  her  under  another  yoke  with  man. 
Her  own  load  can  not  be  lightened,  and  therefore  she  shall 
have  a  fresh  weight ! 

Why  should  women  persist  in  appraising  themselves  at 
men's  valuation,  and  that  of  the  baser  sort  of  men  ?  In 
savage  tribes,  where  the  standard  has  hardly  risen  above 
physical  strength,  it  is  not  strange  that  women  should  be 
menial  in  service  and  soul.  In  this  age  and  country,  where 
women  are  often  actually,  and  always  theoretically  held  in 
honor,  largely  exempt  from  pecuniary,  and  always  exempt 
from  political  labor,  they  ought  to  adopt  the  highest  theory, 
and  insist  that  it  be  carried  out.  They  ought  to  insist  upon 
freedom  from  toil,  that  they  may  worthily  discharge  the 
duties  of  their  spiritual  office  and  all  mental  furnishing,  that 
their  freedom  may  be  a  blessing  and  no  bane.  Instead  of 
this,  we  are  bidden  to  fall  back  upon  the  theory  of  savages, 
and  look  upon  woman's  exemptions  not  as  preparation  for, 
but  banishment  from  the  most  honorable  offices.  We  de- 
mand that  women  shall  come  to  their  own,  not  by  enfor- 
cing, but  by  relinquishing  their  prerogative.  What  they  do 
already  of  necessity  from  man's  incapacity,  they  shall  do  of 
set  purpose  by  reason  of  their  own  capacity.  And  when 
women,  with  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  their  own  law  abro- 
gated, shall  be  set  side  by  side  with  men,  be  made  subject 
to  the  same  tasks,  liable  for  the  same  debts,  and  obedient 
to  the  same  summons,  we  shall  have  secured  the  enfran- 
chisement and  the  elevation  of  woman  ! 


272  Woman's  Worth 


XVI. 

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MEN. 

It  is  reckoned  a  matter  of  course  that  men  should  op- 
pose female  suffrage.  They  have  held  power  too  long,  and 
learned  to  love  it  too  well,  to  relinquish  it  without  a  strug- 
gle. They  will  not  willingly  share  that  which  they  have 
hitherto  monopolized. 

If  men  were  indeed  tyrants  by  nature,  this  would  be  their 
natural  feeling.  There  are  stupid,  ignorant,  and  tyrannical 
men  enough  to  give  rise  to  the  statement.  Such  men  op- 
pose the  movement  with  arguments  whose  impudence  and 
coarseness  are  the  shame,  and  doubtless  the  torture,  of  the 
women  to  whom  they  belong.  Men  who  have  not  ability  to 
govern  themselves,  who  are  a  disgrace,  a  terror,  or  a  trial  to 
their  families,  are  loud  in  their  outcry  against  the  govern- 
ment of  women.  Let  us  not  be  blind  to  the  fact — nor  yet 
to  that  other  fact,  that  the  best  men  too  are  its  opponents. 
Men  just  and  calm,  who  are  never  guilty  of  discourtesy,  who 
are  lovely  and  pleasant  in  their  home  lives,  and  who  radiate 
hght  in  the  social  circle;  who  are  not  only  deferent  in  man- 
ner, but  who  practically  honor  women  by  their  walk  and 
conversation ;  in  whose  character  jealousy,  envy,  meanness 
have  no  place — these  men  too,  persistently,  though  perhaps 
passively,  and  always  politely,  oppose.  Is  it  too  much  to 
say  that  the  instinct  of  men  is  against  it  ?  They  will  admit 
its  reasonableness,  they  will  even  obey  orders  under  its 
leaders,  but  there  seems  to  be  nothing  in  them  to  respond 
with  enthusiasm  to  its  appeal,  and  they  seldom  take  it  up 
spontaneously. 


and  Worthlessness.  273 

[I  believe,  indeed,  it  is  a  man  who  announces  that  "  there 
are  thousands  of  men  and  women  in  Massachusetts  who 
would  walk  barefoot  from  Berkshire  to  Barnstable,  who 
would  sacrifice  party^  social  position,  money,  reputation,  life 
itself,  to  establish  woman  suffrage  in  the  Old  Bay  State  to- 
day," and  I  suspect  that  statement  must  be  referred  to  en- 
thusiasm. The  money  and  life  are  easy  to  believe.  We 
can  any  of  us  pick  out  a  dozen  or  two  women  among  our 
neighbors  who  would  cheerfully  mount  the  gallows  for  the 
sake  of  securing  the  immediate  passage  of  a  certain  act  by 
the  Legislature,  but  these  very  women  have  been  so  accus- 
tomed to  shoes  and  stockings  that  it  would  be  simply  im- 
possible for  them  to  walk  across  Massachusetts  barefoot, 
and  they  would  not  like  to  be  seen  doing  it  either !] 

Masculine  hostility  or  indifference  to  female  suffrage  may 
be  a  vice,  but  it  may  also  be  an  instinct.  Masculine  vice 
shall  receive  no  quarter,  but  instinct  is  divine,  irrespect- 
ive of  sex.  The  hostility  is  at  least  worth  taking  into  ac- 
count. If  there  is  a  course  of  action  to  which  a  large  class 
of  women  feel  no  drawing,  to  which  another  large  class  are 
opposed,  and  which  a  large  class  of  men  consider  unbecom- 
ing and  undesirable  for  women,  there  is  surely  ground  for 
hesitation.  As  things  are,  may  it  not  be  said,  in  general 
terms,  that  what  men  dislike  in  women,  and  what  women  dis- 
like in  men,  is  unlovely  ?  Men,  we  say,  wish  to  keep  wom 
en  inferior  for  the  better  security  of  their  own  position,  but 
I  never  saw  a  man  evince  any  repugnance  to  a  woman  on 
account  of  her  superiority.  Men  admire  fine  qualities,  and 
acknowledge  remarkable  attainments  in  a  woman  as  heart- 
ily as  they  do  in  a  man.  Doctors  refuse  to  consult  with 
female  physicians,  but  they  refuse  to  consult  with  male  phy 
sicians  also ;  and  among  the  obstacles  to  female  medical 
practice,  not  the  least  formidable  is  the  unexpected  fact  that 
women  will  not  have  women-doctors.     Artists  detract  from 

M  2 


2  74  Woman's  Worth 

the  merits  of  a  female  artist,  but  male  artists  quarrel  among 
each  other.  Outside  and  above  the  circle  of  professional 
jealousy,  masculine  opinion  is  as  likely  to  take  up  for  the 
woman  as  the  man.  Assumption  of  superiority,  boldness 
and  badness  of  manner,  self-laudation,  men  do  not  like. 
Neither  do  women,  nor  probably  angels.  But  men  are  as 
proud  of  their  daughters'  proficiency  in  Latin  and  the  high- 
er mathematics  as  they  are  of  their  sons'.  Yet  these  men, 
who  respect  the  judgment  of  their  wives,  give  the  best  pos- 
sible education  to  their  daughters,  and  find  their  most  cher- 
ished, valued,  and  honored  friends  among  women,  retain 
still  an  insurmountable  repugnance  to  the  proposed  political 
leveling.  They  are  not  afraid  that  wife  or  friend  will  be 
contaminated  by  politics.  They  have  too  much  respect  for 
both  politics  and  w^omen.  It  can  not  be  jealousy  or  tyran- 
ny. They  are  incapable  of  either.  To  charge  it  to  such 
motives  does  not  help  solve  the  problem.  They  are  not 
to  be  won  over  with  hard  words.  They  are  sensitive  — 
men  are  sometimes,  particularly  towards  women — and  such 
allegations  give  them  a  sense  of  wrong,  and  even  of  out- 
rage. They  know  that  they  are  not  tyrants,  that  they  wish 
well  to  women,  that  they  would  gladly  do  whatever  is  right 
and  wise ;  but  they  see  an  army  of  women  charging  fierce- 
ly for  the  suffrage  and  making  the  heavens  ring  with  cries 
of  injustice  and  oppression  ;  they  see  another  army  of 
women,  equally  virtuous — and,  in  spite  of  contrary  repre- 
sentations, I  will  venture  to  say,  equally  intelligent — wholly 
opposed  to  the  suffrage,  and  they  know  not  what  they  are 
expected  to  do.  They  hesitate  from  doubt  as  to  what  wom- 
en want,  not  from  anxiety  for  their  own  prestige.  They 
may  in  their  hearts  hope  the  change  will  never  come,  but 
they  would  not  selfishly  oppose  it  against  the  protest  of 
women. 

Whatever  be  the  cause  of  this  antagonistic  Ur  uncertain 


mid  Worthies  sues  s.  275 

attitude,  it  can  not  be  wise  to  ignore  or  overbear  it.  The 
leaders  of  the  party  say  frankly  that  men  will  never  grant 
the  right  so  long  as  they  can  help  it.  I  believe  they  can 
always  help  it  if  they  choose,  but  even  if  they  can  not,  and 
suffrage  should  be  extorted,  could  the  result  be  otherwise 
than  unhappy?  Antagonism  between  man  and  woman  is, 
of  all  things,  unnatural.  Attraction  is  the  natural  relation. 
It  seems  immodest  for  woman  to  thrust  herself  into  the 
ways  and  walks  of  man.  Necessity  is  its  own  hard  and 
sufficient  justification  ;  but,  if  I  am  right,  the  necessity  is 
not  here.  Its  existence  is,  at  least,  not  certain.  Feminine 
interference,  when  needed,  is  not  recognised  as  interference, 
but  help — is  not  rejected,  but  welcomed.  If  woman  suffrage 
is  to  be,  let  it  come  from  man's  call,  not  from  woman's 
clamor.  Let  it  come  because  the  wisdom  and  strength  of 
woman  are  so  manifest,  because  she  is  seen  to  be  larger  than 
her  life,  and  because  the  councils  of  her  country  need  her 
aid.  If,  even  in  the  home  for  which  she  is  eminently  and 
primarily  fitted,  she  does  not  take  the  initiative,  but  awaits 
invitation  and  preparation,  how  much  less  should  she  rush 
unbidden  into  the  outer  wilderness.  Called  by  man  to  his 
public  life  as  earnestly  as  he  calls  her  to  the  support  of  his 
inner  life,  her  response  might  well  be  as  ready,  and  her  aid 
as  wholesome.  Does  this  seem  to  be  hyper-sentimental.? 
But  the  indifference  and  reluctance  of  men  and  women 
certify  that  there  is  some  sentiment,  real,  deep,  perhaps  to 
be  found  in  the  end  inexpugnable.  Certainly,  whatever  we 
shall  have  gained  of  vakiable,  we  shall  have  lost  somewhat 
of  invaluable  when  any  improvement  or  enlargement  shall 
have  caused  that  women  cease  to  be,  to  the  imagination  of 
men,  worshipful,  retiring,  inspiring,  and  become  aggressive, 
pugnacious,  self-centred. 


276  Woman's  Worth 


XVII. 

RESULTS. 

But  I  have  a  profound  faith  in  the  inviolability  of  nature 
Neither  man  nor  woman  can  ever  be  permanently  unsexed. 
Not  all  the  laws  of  all  the  lands  can  add  one  cubit  to  the 
stature  of  either.  After  the  agitation  is  soothed,  and  read- 
justment secured,  men  will  remain  men,  and  women  wom- 
en, just  as  much  alike,  just  as  widely  unlike,  and  just  as  at- 
tractive in  their  unlikeness  as  they  now  are,  for  nature  is 
amenable  to  divine  and  not  to  human  will.  But,  while  this 
may  give  heart  to  those  who  fear  universal  derangement  and 
deterioration  from  the  proposed  change,  it  ought  also  to  in- 
spire caution  in  those  who  hope  all  things  from  the  same 
source.  Nature  makes  no  allowance  for  ignorance,  and 
condones  no  mistakes.  While  sciolists  are  experimenting, 
sentient  beings  are  suffering.  If  to-day  women  should  ac- 
quire legal  equality  with  men,  and  customs  should  enforce 
social  equality,  would  Heaven  take  heed  and  give  us  natu- 
ral equality  to  correspond  ?  Will  divine  laws  be  changed  to 
match  our  human  code  ?  I  know  some  say  that  by  divine 
law  equality  is  already  established,  which  is  simply  saying 
that  women  are  men,  save  for  a  little  training.  An  earnest 
pleader,  arguing  in  numbers,  bids  us 

"  Remember,  God  bestows  his  care 
Of  sex  regardless  every  where." 

Nothing  is  more  palpably  false.  So  far  is  God  from  being 
regardless  of  sex,  that  sex  appears  rather  to  be  the  key-note 
of  creation.  So  far  is  he  from  bestowing  his  care  regardless 
of  sex,  that  he  seems  to  have  been  careful  to  confer  immu- 


and  Wort/dcssfiess.  277 

nity  upon  the  one  and  to  impose  tax  upon  the  other.  Look- 
ing at  it  without  regard  to  spiritual  compensation,  God  is 
the  most  partial  of  beings.  He  made  one  sex  strong  and 
the  other  sex  weak,  and  upon  the  weak  he  laid  a  heavy 
burden,  where  upon  the  strong  he  laid  none  at  all.  Worse 
than  this,  he  made  the  burden  of  the  weaker  sex  insepara- 
ble, while  the  only  burden  of  the  stronger  sex  was  so  lightly 
and  loosely  laid  that  it  could  always  be  shifted  to  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  weaker,  and  it  always  has,  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  been  thus  shifted,  so  that  the  weaker  has  borne  the 
load  of  the  stronger  in  addition  to  its  own.  With  all  this, 
he  left  it  to  no  one's  choice  whether  to  be  male  or  female, 
or  whether  to  be  at  all,  but  of  his  own  will  begat  he  us.  To 
man  he  gave  not  only  strength,  but  joy  ;  to  woman,  not  only 
weakness,  but  suffering.  Man  incurs  pain  only  through  dis- 
ease, the  result  of  folly  or  ignorance.  Woman's  highest 
health  and  happiness  come  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death.  The  harshest  law  that  man  ever  framed  for  wom- 
an is  tender  and  benevolent  compared  with  the  irreversible 
natural  law  under  which  she  lives,  and  moves,  and  has  her 
being. 

Do  I  then  arraign  God  ?  I  do,  if  social  equality  is  the 
complement  of  natural  inequality.  I  do,  unless  political 
decisions  shall  change  physical  conditions ;  unless  consti- 
tutional amendments  shall  emanate  from  the  courts  of  heav- 
en to  correspond  with  mundane  legislation  ;  unless  the  de- 
cree that  woman's  arm  shall  do  man's  work  is  attended 
by  another  decree  that  it  shall  be  endowed  with  man's 
muscle.  If  it  is  God's  will  that  women  shall  be  on  the 
same  footing  with  men  ;  that  they  shall  go  out  as  men  go,  to 
earn  their  own  living  and  make  their  own  way,  to  bear  the 
brunt,  and  form  the  front,  and  face  the  foe,  then  there  is  no 
God.  There  is  only  a  great,  cruel,  partial,  pitiless  Man  sit- 
ting in  the  heavens,  whom  I  hate,  though  I  can  not  hinder. 


278  Woman  s  Worth 

Happily,  we  are  not  reduced  to  the  alternative.  God 
moves  in  a  mysterious,  but  not  in  an  arbitrary  way.  It  is 
impossible  to  fathom  his  motives,  to  see  why  evil  should  be 
the  inexorable  attendant  of  good,  why  good  and  evil  should 
be  so  unequally  distributed.  Our  popular  understanding 
of  the  Hebrew  explanation  is  as  little  satisfactory  as  the 
theological  assertion  that  compensation  is  found  in  a  supe- 
rior moral  power  of  endurance.  The  way  to  look  for  relief 
is  not  in  the  direction  of  endurance,  but  of  delight ;  in  the 
unspeakable  joy  of  a  love  so  intense  that  sacrifice  becomes 
impossible.  Be  that  as  it  may,  on  the  hither  side  we  are 
not  left  in  doubt.  Why  God  made  us  as  we  are  no  one  can 
say.  Having  made  us  as  we  are,  he  has  given  sufficient  in- 
timation of  our  course.  God — my  God — says,  "  The  w^om- 
an  was  not  made  for  toil.  Man  alone  shall  eat  bread  in 
the  sweat  of  his  brow.  Woman  shall  work  in  calmness  and 
repose.  Hers  is  the  flower  and  fruit  of  human  power,  to 
whose  perfect  unfolding  all  other  human  power  shall  minis- 
ter." The  imposition  of  task-work  is  man's  doing,  not 
God's.  It  is  the  result  of  imperfect,  not  the  object  of  per- 
fect development.  It  is  something  which  we  are  gradually 
to  throw  off",  not  systematically  to  take  on.  We  see  this  in 
the  invariable  tendency  of  man  as  he  advances  in  refine- 
ment to  cherish  woman,  in  the  natural  content  of  woman  to 
be  cherished.  The  instinct  of  love,  the  highest  instinct  of 
all,  leads  a  man  to  defend  a  woman  from  every  thing  that  is 
harsh,  hard,  repellant,  and  gives  him  a  new  incentive  to  win 
fame   and  fortune. "^     The  woman  feels   no   such  impulse. 

*  One  of  the  most  brilliant  of  the  suffrage  leaders — a  man,  however 
— in  a  letter  to  a  labor-congress,  says :  "  Eagerly  do  I  share  the  senti- 
ment that  every  man  should  support  some  woman — his  heart's  mate 
whom  he  loves,  and  for  whom  he  strives.  The  chivalry  which  makes 
the  strong  sex  the  natural  protector  of  the  weak  runs  in  every  true 
man's  blood.  *  *  * 

"  Finally,  after  having  gallantly  received  her  into  the  trade  of  her 


and  Wort/iUssiiess.  279 

Her  love  moves  her  to  untiring  but  silent  service.  It  is  in- 
genious and  delicate,  but  it  craves  quiet  and  withdrawal. 
It  sees,  and  watches,  and  waits.  It  controls  by  indirection 
— not  the  indirection  of  duplicity,  but  of  instinct  and  wis- 
dom. Its  audacity  is  in  affection  and  amusement.  Its  re- 
buke is  chiefly  suggestive.  Its  fashioning  comes  in  tender- 
ness. Where  a  man  will  be  downright,  a  woman  is  content 
to  be  upright. 

The  misery  of  wrong-doing  points  the  same  way  as  the 
happiness  of  right-doing.  A  woman  under  the  yoke,  wheth- 
er she  be  overburdened  with  tlie  cooking,  washing,  and  serv- 
ing of  her  family,  or  with  plowing  and  mining — indeed,  many 
forms  of  housekeeping  are  more  onerous  and  less  remuner- 
ative than  many  of  the  employments  of  men — a  woman  un- 
der the  yoke  imposed  by  poverty  or  ignorance  never,  be- 
comes a  man,  but  often  she  does  become  a  worn-out  wom- 
an, shattered  in  nerves,  health,  temper.  In  some  countries 
it  goes  so  far  that  she  becomes  a  brutalized  woman.  In  all 
countries  her  comeliness  is  marred,  her  physical  delicacy  de- 
stroyed, her  real  service  lost.  Thus  Nature  protests  against 
the  spoliation. 

When  women  are  cursed  with  their  granted  prayer,  the 
hardest  lot  will  fall  to  those  whose  lot  is  hardest  now.  It 
is  the  working-woman  for  whom  all  is  asked,  but  it  is  the 
working-woman  on  whom  the  sword  will  be  turned.  She  is 
the  unfriended  or  the  insufficiently  befriended.  W^orking- 
women  are  chiefly  those  whose  male  relatives  are  unable  or 
unwilling  to  support  them.  "  The  loving  and  beloved  wife," 
the  "  petted  and  caressed  daughter"  of  the  strong  and  suc- 

choice,  if  then  you  can  not  bear  to  see  her  soiling  her  white  hands  with 
its  grime,  and  you  want  to  get  her  out  of  it,  why,  seize  the  first  golden 
chance  to  marry  her  out  of  it,  and,  my  word  for  it,  she  will  then  gra- 
ciously leave  you  the  monopoly  all  to  yourselves  !" 
But  now  she  says  she  won't ! 


28o  Woman's  Wo7'th 

cessful  man,  will  be  scarcely  conscious  of  any  change.  In 
her  well-guarded  home  it  matters  little  to  her  whether  she 
is  loved  by  law  or  grace.  But  the  unguarded  woman  must 
fight  her  fight  with  the  same  real  and  relative  disability  as 
now,  but  with  an  assumed,  a  legal  equality  which  precludes 
privilege,  though  it  can  not  disarm  fate.  While  she  has  no 
vote,  no  defined  power,  her  position  is  a  constant  appeal  to 
chivalry,  a  constant  rebuke  to  brutality.  When  she  has 
seized  the  sufi"rage,  her  brutal  employer  and  the  not  too  gen- 
tle by-standers  will  not  fail  to  say,  "  Now  you  have  got  your 
long-sought  equality,  make  the  most  of  it ;  ask  no  favors,  and 
look  out  for  yourself."  Alas !  but  women  are  women  still. 
Change  thy  laws,  thy  state  is  still  the  same.  Good  men  will 
be  good,  but  the  bad  and  the  selfish  will  have  no  cloak  for 
their  sin.  With  woman  somewhat  deferred  to,  with  greed 
somewhat  held  in  leash  by  shame,  the  life  of  the  weak  work- 
woman is  hard  enough.  Is  it  likely  to  be  easier  when  she 
has  dismissed  the  advantages  while  retaining  the  disadvan- 
tages of  sex,  challenged  her  foes  to  combat,  and  dulled  the 
swords  of  her  defenders  ? 

But  "  there  is  no  work  in  ihe  world  which  a  man  will  not 
do  better  for  having  a  woman  at  his  side."  That,  too,  I  dis- 
pute. /There  is  no  work  which  a  man  will  not  do  better  for 
having  a  woman  awaiting  him  at  home  ;  but  there  are  few 
men,  and,  indeed,  few  women,  who  can  stand  constant  asso- 
ciation. It  is  the  alternation  of  day  and  night  that  makes 
both  pleasant  and  even  tolerable.  It  is  the  temporary  sep- 
aration that  gives  zest,  and  even  worth  to  companionship^! 
Is  a  man  better  or  happier  for  having  a  woman  holding  the 
plow,  or  swinging  the  axe,  or  pegging  the  shoe,  or  hammer- 
ing the  anvil  beside  him,  than  for  thinking  of  her,  tidy,  and 
fresh,  and  bright  at  home  ?  Is  the  true  ideal  of  home  one 
where  the  man  and  the  woman  shall  both  be  out  in  the 
world  at  work,  and  the  house  left  empty  and  silent  ?     That 


and  Worthlesstiess.  2Fr 

is  no  home  at  all.  The  mother's  presence  in  the  house  is 
not  the  fiat  of  tyranny  or  prejudice,  but  the  natural  craving 
of  the  heart.  Do  you  say  that  her  life  there  is  often  but  a 
martyrdom ;  that  she  is  as  heated  and  hurried  in  her  kitchen 
as  her  husband  in  his  hay-field,  and  gets  but  a  begrudged 
tithe  of  his  wages  ?  I  know  it  a  thousand  times  ;  but  let  us 
not,  therefore,  get  her  out  of  the  kitchen  into  the  hay-field, 
out  of  the  frying-pan  into  the  fire,  at  any  wages  whatever, 
still  less  at  entirely  uncertain  ones.  What  I  want  is  to  take 
her  from  both  frying-pan  and  fire  into  peace  of  mind,  and 
tranquillity  of  nerve,  and  perfect  physical  comfort.  But  I 
must  confess  that  even  with  the  discomposure,  anxiety,  and 
overwork  too  often  found,  home  is  more  home  with  the 
mother  in  it  than  with  the  mother  out.  I  blame  no  woman 
for  leaving  it.  If  she  has  partially  or  wholly  to  support  her- 
self or  her  children,  it  is  for  herself  to  choose  the  mode,  nor 
shall  the  way  be  fairly  blocked  to  any  honest  work  ;  but  it 
is  only  the  least  of  two  or  of  many  evils.  It  is  not  the  great- 
est good.  Men  as  yet  need  some  help  to  their  imagination. 
There  remains  still  room  for  a  little  illusion.  It  is  better 
for  men,  it  is  better  for  women,  that  each  somewhat  idealize 
the  other.  Much  is  lost  when  life  has  lost  its  atmosphere, 
and  is  reduced  to  naked  facts.  The  most  real  relation  be- 
tween man  and  woman  involves  somewhat  of  wonderment 
and  mystery,  leaves  ever  something  to  be  divined.  Dissev- 
ered and  defective  as  society  may  be,  the  most  perfect 
trades'  union  of  the  sexes  that  the  philosophic  brain  ever 
devised  will  not  so  nearly  compass  their  real  unity  as  has 
been  compassed  by  the  blind  instincts  of  the  generations. 
The  one  is  a  clever  device,  but  it  is  a  device,  and  can  not 
hold.  The  other  is  a  hindered  but  healthy  growth  j  but  it 
is  a  growth,  and  growth  means  life,  and  life  prevails. 

We  speak  often  of  results  as  if  they  were  immediate  and 
indisputable.    We  quote  Judge  Howe's  letter  from  Wyoming 


282  Woman^s  Worth 

as  if  that  were  conclusive  regarding  the  effects  of  female 
suffrage.  In  two  or  three  years,  after  the  novelty  is  over,  all 
will  be  quiet,  and  we  shall  marvel  at  the  agitations  of  the 
past.  But  two  or  three  years  and  two  or  three  generations 
will  hardly  settle  it.  Whoever  realizes  how  radical  is  the 
contemplated  change,  will  not  fail  to  see  that  only  the  slow 
growth  of  character  can  attest  success  or  failure.  It  is  not 
whether  a  woman  shall  or  shall  not  be  justice  of  the  peace  ; 
it  is  whether  the  plane  of  national  life  shall  be  higher.  It 
is  pleasant  to  know  that  a  half  dozen  female  jurors  were 
dignified  and  decorous,  conscientious  and  resolute,  and  that 
lawyers  and  others  were  courteous  to  them,  but  it  is  not  sur- 
prising. American  women  are  accustomed  to  be  dignified 
and  resolute  outside  of  jury-boxes,  and  to  receive  deference 
from  American  men  outside  of  court-rooms ;  we  should  be 
altogether  struck  dumb  with  amazement  to  find  that  their 
presence  in  a  court-room  caused  a  sudden  change  of  front. 
But  this  does  not  determine  whether  a  public  abnegation 
of  sex,  an  indiscriminate  commingling  of  men  and  wom- 
en in  all  the  walks  of  life,  will  intensify  and  increase  in 
each  sex  those  traits  which  are  recognized  as  most  desira- 
ble, will  establish  a  purer  and  more  intellectual  society,  a 
more  delicate,  refined,  and  upright  national  life.  We  resent 
the  exclusion  of  women  from  colleges  ;  but  when  Harvard 
and  Yale  are  thrown  open  to  girls,  we  have  not  gained  the 
victory.  We  have  only  occupied  the  ground.  The  battle 
is  still  to  be  fought.  It  is  impossible  not  to  have  grave 
doubts  of  the  result.  I  believe,  first,  last,  and  always,  in 
the  highest  education  for  women,  and  it  is  a  waste  to  estab- 
lish girls'  colleges  if  existing  ones  will  equally  answer  the 
purpose.  But  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  chief  opposi- 
tion to  the  admission  of  girls  to  a  certain  college  came 
from  mothers  who  were  unwilling  to  have  their  sons  attend 
"mixed  colleges."     I  am  told  that,  even  in  a  college  which 


and  Worthlessness.  283 

has  been  always  open  to  girls,  there  is  arising  among  the 
professors  a  query  as  to  whether  this  is,  on  the  whole,  the 
wisest  course.  Theoretically  it  is  unobjectionable.  Sepa- 
ration in  study,  association  in  recitation,  would  seem  adapt- 
ed to  give  the  best  results — would  seem  to  be  most  in  the 
line  of  nature.  But  if  there  are  qualities  in  human  nature 
which  make  such  alliance  impracticable  ;  if  there  are  un- 
derlying facts,  of  which  no  theory  takes  account,  but  which 
experience  brings  inevitably  to  the  surface  ;  if,  for  some 
unexplained  reason,  mixed  colleges  prove  less  efficient  for 
either  sex  than  those  which  are  prepared  for  one  sex  alone, 
we  must  recognize  the  fact,  and  shape  our  institutions  ac- 
cordingly, at  whatever  inconvenience  or  expense.  I  shall 
be  only  too  well  content  if  the  main  obstacle  do  not  prove 
to  be  the  disinclination  of  girls  to  submit  to  the  rigor  of  an 
honorable  college  curriculum.  When  I  see  how  indifferent 
they  often  are  to  the  advantages  already  presented ;  when  I 
see  how  they  drop  out  of  the  high  schools  in  the  second 
and  third  years ;  when  I  hear  that  of  the  thirty  courses  of 
university  lectures  thrown  open  to  women  at  Harvard,  not 
more  than  half  a  dozen  have  had  a  paying  audience  of  half 
a  dozen  each,  I  confess  I  am  not  sanguine.  It  is  said  that 
the  possession  of  the  suffrage  will  give  new  ambition,  and 
change  indifference  to  eagerness.  But  it  is  not  easy  to  see 
why  suffrage  should  do  more  for  women  than  it  does  for 
men,  and,  in  spite  of  our  rhetoric,  it  leaves  men  very  much 
as  it  finds  them.  The  populace  of  New  York  seem  to  be 
no  more  intelligent,  self- controlled,  patriotic,  or  aspiring 
than  they  were  on  the  day  thev  were  naturalized.  The  ig- 
norant, drunken,  and  stubborn  rustic  has  been  voting  as 
long  as  the  scholar  and  gentleman  at  his  side.  I  see  far 
more  light  in  the  direction  of  the  Vassar  College — would  it 
were  not  called  a  college  !^-and  the  Simmons  Institute  than 
in  that  of  the  ballot-box. 


284  Woman's  Worth 

There  is  another  kind  of  school,  whose  influence  is  scarce- 
ly less  than  that  of  the  college,  which  is  even  harder  to  open 
to  girls,  yet  without  which  it  would  be  unjust  to  demand 
from  them  the  work  of  boys.  A  lad  of  fourteen,  for  in- 
stance, is  sent  alone  on  a  pieasure-tour  to  New  York,  Cleve- 
land, Niagara,  Chicago,  to  travel  by  himself,  sleep  at  hotels, 
pay  his  own  bills,  find  his  own  trains — in  short,  to  get  out  of 
his  week's  vacation  all  that  he  can.  Three  boys  of  fifteen 
and  seventeen  take  their  boat,  tent,  and  provisions,  and 
spend  their  vacation  in  coasting,  rowing  and  sailing  by  day, 
landing  at  night,  preparing  their  meals,  making  inland  ex- 
cursions, sleeping  in  their  tents,  and  drinking  great  draughts 
of  health,  information,  and  sagacity.  A  boy  of  sixteen  goes 
to  Europe  alone,  with  such  help  as  letters  and  careful  direc- 
tions may  afford,  to  study  and  travel  for  a  year.  We  can 
hardly  overestimate  the  self-reliance,  the  curious,  accurate, 
and  valuable  knowledge  which  such  experiences  bring.  Are 
they  possible  for  girls  ?  Must  not  something  more  than 
law,  more  even  than  public  opinion,  be  changed  before  we 
shall  send  girls  of  fourteen,  sixteen,  and  seventeen  out  into 
the  world  unattended,  to  observe,  judge,  and  learn  for  them- 
selves ?  Would  the  most  profound  believer  in  woman's 
equality  with  man  send  her  5^oung  daughter  on  a  pleasure- 
tour  through  the  country  with  no  other  anxiety  than  would 
follow  her  young  son  on  the  same  journey?  And  until  we 
can  establish  equality  in  the  whole  class  of  conditions  of 
which  this  is  but  a  single  example,  is  it  not  idle  to  expect 
equality  of  results  ? 

We  will  have  women  introduced  into  our  courts  of  law  as 
jurors,  and  at  the  first  blush  the  presiding  judge  feels  call- 
ed upon  to  assure  them  that  "  it  would  be  a  most  shameful 
scandal  that  in  our  temples  of  justice  and  in  our  courts  of 
law  any  thing  should  be  permitted  which  the  most  sensitive 
lady  might  not  hear  with  propriety,  and  witness."    But  does 


and  Worthies sness.  285 

not  this  at  once  put  us  on  unequal  ground?  Is  not  the 
temple  of  justice  immediately  changed  to  a  drawing-room? 
It  is  very  much  to  be  desired  that  we  should  all  and  always 
live  under  the  drawing-room  code  of  politeness  and  proprie- 
ty; but,  taking  society  as  it  is,  high  and  low,  if  courts  of  law 
are  to  be  temples  of  justice,  how  is  it  possible  to  exclude 
from  them  many  things  which  must  be  extremely  painful  to 
sensitive  persons,  whether  ladies  or  gentlemen  ?  Indeed, 
courts  of  law  are,  in  some  sort,  receptacles  for  impropriety, 
the  appointed  places  where  hatred,  envy,  malice,  and  all 
uncharitableness  and  uncleanness  must  be  weighed,  meas- 
ured,  and  repressed  for  the  health  of  society,  and  we  can 
not  adopt  the  principle  of  excluding  testimony  on  account 
of  its  disagreeableness  without  subjecting  clients  to  injus- 
tice and  society  to  injury.  Thus  nature  rises  at  once  stron- 
ger than  legislation.  When  you  have  secured  equality  be- 
fore the  law,  you  have  not  secured  equality  behind  the  law. 
Though  in  the  relations  of  love  and  friendship  a  man  and 
a  woman  can  receive  and  return  more  confidence  than  two 
of  the  same  sex,  in  the  relations  of  competition,  hostility,  or 
indifference  there  must  be,  in  high-minded  persons,  a  defer- 
ence, a  restraint,  a  reticence  not  always  favorable  to  the 
elucidation  of  truth  or  to  the  arrival  at  durable  conclu- 
sions. 

That  some  women  of  ability,  education,  and  experience 
are  well  fitted  for  political  activity  no  one  will  deny.  It 
is  not  strange  that  such  women,  warm-hearted,  benevolent, 
and  conscious  of  power,  seeing  the  suffering  around  them, 
should  demand  amplest  scope.  But  if  their  freedom  in- 
volves a  chain  to  vastly  superior  numbers  who  have  nei- 
ther their  gifts  nor  their  opportunities,  is  it  too  much  to  ask 
that  they  should  forego  its  full  possession  ?  To  say  that  no 
one  will  force  women  to  vote  against  their  will  is  but  partial 
truth.     When  women  have  the  power  to  vote,  it  becomes 


2  86  Woman's  Worth 

their  duty.  A  moral  coercion  is  put  upon  them  which,  if 
women  are  what  they  are  represented  to  be,  will  operate, 
and  in  any  event  ought  to  operate,  as  effectively  as  physical 
force.  I  preach  no  such  doctrine  as  that  women  ought 
to  "  trust"  their  husbands,  fathers,  and  brothers.  No  one 
should  intrust  to  another  what  he  ought  to  do  himself. 
Men  are  not  given  to  women  to  be  trusted,  but  to  be  train- 
ed. They  may,  indeed,  be  trusted  as  a  part  of  their  train- 
ing— as  Dr.  Arnold  trusted  little  Arthur  to  big  Tom  Brown, 
not  to  protect  Arthur,  but  to  save  Tom.  It  is  simply  that 
women  can  not  do  every  thing ;  that  they  have  at  least  no 
more  fitness  than  men  to  mould  affairs,  and  a  great  deal 
more  fitness  than  men  to  mould  the  human  race  j  that  men, 
with  all  their  failures,  succeed  better  in  the  lower  work  of 
politics  and  business  than  they  do  in  the  higher  work  of 
humanity ;  and  that  it  is,  therefore,  better  that  politics 
should  be  left  to  men  than  that  men  should  be  left  to  them- 
selves. Moreover,  the  freedom  of  the  many  requires  the  re- 
pression  of  the  few  in  only  one  direction.  Every  weapon 
of  warfare  but  one  they  may  wield  without  stint.  They  may 
promulgate  their  views,  exert  their  influence  to  the  height  of 
their  ability  and  desire,  through  pulpit,  press,  and  platform. 
In  politics  they  can  command  every  thing  but  office — I  be- 
lieve, indeed,  they  are  not  wholly  excluded  from  office ;  and 
surely  it  is  not  office  for  which  we  are  making  all  this  ado. 
Some  of  the  most  influential  men  in  the  old  anti-slavery 
times  did  not  vote,  and  were  as  morally  ineligible  to  office 
as  are  women  legally  ;•  and  some  of  the  most  influential  anti- 
slavery  reformers  were  women.  Let  a  woman  have  real 
power,  and  no  party  but  will  be  glad  to  avail  itself  of  her 
pen  and  voice,  and  to  pay  her  all  personal  honor,  and  am- 
ple pecuniary  reward.  If  she  have  a  taste  for  mechanics, 
or  medicine,  or  law,  for  learning  or  science,  let  her  cultivate 
it  to  the  last  degree  of  excellence,  assured  that  she  who  at- 


and  V/orthlcssness.  287 

tains  skill  in  any  department  is  not  only  enriching  her  own 
life,  but  is  helping  all  women  ;  for  no  argument  is  so  incon- 
trovertible as  snccess.  Every  woman  who  does  good  work 
of  any  kind — without  or  within,  on  land  or  sea — every  woman 
who  commands  high  wages  for  her  work  ;  every  woman  who 
invents  some  new  method  of  usefulness  ;  every  woman  who 
succeeds  in  a  trade  or  occupation  hitherto  unappropriated 
by  women ;  every  woman  who  successfully  conducts  busi- 
ness, not  because  she  particularly  likes  it,  nor  because  it  is 
necessary  to  herself,  but  for  the  encouragement  and  assist- 
ance of  those  to  whom  some  business  is  necessary  —  all 
these  are  rendering  to  their  sex  and  to  society  invaluable 
service.  Every  woman  who  goes  honorably  through  a  diffi- 
cult course  of  mental  or  mechanical  training  gives  an  in- 
centive to  all  women.  Neither  literary  nor  political  intelli- 
gence, nor  practical  skill,  unfits  a  woman  for  home.  They 
make  her  more  ready  of  hand,  more  fertile  in  resource. 
Handicraft  is  not  woman's  best  preparation  for  her  natural 
work,  but  neither  is  it  the  worst.  When  it  is  seen  that  the 
highest  education  does  not  make  a  woman  pedantic  and  an- 
gular, but  rather  endows  her  with  grace  and  tact ;  that  po- 
litical knowledge,  patriotic  interest,  and  practical  skill  do 
not  make  her  opinionated,  bellicose,  self-asserting,  but  for- 
bearing, appreciative,  considerate,  comprehensive,  prejudice 
against  learning  and  politics  will  vanish.  And  the  highest 
universities  calling  to  woman,  and  every  facility  for  trade 
and  traffic  afforded  her,  will  never  compel,  will  only  invite 
and  allure.  It  can  all  be  gained  without  diminishing  the 
freedom,  imposing  upon  the  conscience,  adding  to  the  bur- 
den, or  arousing  the  opposition  of  any  woman,  but  not  with- 
out attracting  the  attention,  and  tempting  the  admiration 
and  emulation  of  all.  And  if,  by-and-by,  science  and  art 
assume  the  alien  work  which  now  weighs  woman  down,  and 
leisure,  and  observation,  and  thought  shall  make  her  insight. 


288  Wo7nan's  Worth 

her  judgment,  her  quick  sympathy  so  valuable  that  men 
seek  her  co-operation  in  all  their  plans,  then  such  co-opera- 
tion will  become  but  a  part  of  her  natural  function,  and  suf- 
frage— if  it  shall  be  called  suffrage — will  come  harmonious- 
ly and  beneficently.  But  to  come  now  with  hatred,  and 
hooting,  and  howling  from  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort, 
against  the  wish  and  the  conviction  of  a  majority  of  both 
men  and  women,  to  a  class  already  overburdened  with  un- 
natural work,  and  in  a  society  which  has  as  yet  but  a  rude 
and  vague  conception  of  the  difference  between  male  and 
female  work — this  is  a  process  so  unnatural  that  I  see  not 
how  the  effects  can  avoid  becoming  disastrous  except  by 
becoming  insignificant. 

Yet,  if  women  insist  upon  the  suffrage,  men  must  grant  it. 
If  women  claim  the  consequences  and  the  burdens,  how  can 
they  justly  be  hindered  from  exercising  the  powers  ?  But 
we  have  a  right  to  demand  that  men  shall  not  yield  it  at  the 
call  of  any  clique,  committee,  or  convention,  but  only  of  a 
certified  majority  of  women.  They  shall  make  sure  that 
women  do  want  it,  and  not  impose  a  burden  on  the  mis- 
taken supposition  that  they  are  granting  a  request. 

With  women,  the  danger  is  that  the  case  go  by  default. 
The  hardship  to  which  many  women  are  subjected  is  real, 
the  remedy  proposed  is  superficially  reasonable,  its  advo- 
cacy is  persistent  and  palpable  ;  opposition,  from  the  nature 
of  things,  is  more  or  less  passive.  Men  are  strong  and 
dominant,  and  they  vote.  Women  have  as  good  a  right  to 
vote  as  men.  Let  them  vote,  and  they  also  will  become 
strong  and  dominant.  Thus  lightly,  and  without  at  all  com- 
prehending the  extent  of  the  revolution  which  must  follow 
if  the  suffrage  amounts  to  any  thing,  women  may  assume,  or 
perrnit  to  be  imposed  upon  them,  a  task  from  which  they 
will  find  it  difficult  to  disembarrass  themselves. 

In  the  mean  time,  is  it  not  possible  for  women  to  forget 


and  Worthlessness.  289 

the  foolish  and  exasperating  arguments  which  have  been 
turned  against  them,  and  yet  to  respect  the  opposition  out 
of  which  those  arguments  sprung,  and  which  is  infinitely 
wider  and  deeper  than  they?  Never  a  cause  escaped 
wholly  undisgraced  by  its  own  followers.  False  assump- 
tions and  degrading  implications  are  no  new  things  under 
the  sun.  But  truth  is  ever  to  be  sought  along  the  path- 
way of  error.  Let  us  cease  to  take  the  wings  of  the  morn- 
ing and  fly  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  to  find  rea- 
sons for  the  existing  state  of  society,  but  admit  simply  and 
frankly  at  the  outset  that  things  are  where  they  are  because 
they  are  what  they  are.  We  shall  then  be  in  the  line  of 
discovery  and  advancement.  If  the  equality  of  man  and 
woman  is  the  problem  of  the  race,  we  have  no  data  to 
reason  from.  The  past  is  wholly  inconsequent,  and  the 
future  is  but  guess-work.  But  if  we  relinquish  the  idea 
of  equality,  and  substitute  for  it  unity,  apprehending  the 
perfect  being  as  man  created  by  God  male  and  female,  and 
not  two  men  or  two  women,  even  the  fighting  facts  of  his- 
tory cluster  into  symmetry,  the  harshest  discords  soften  into 
harmony,  and  out  of  the  depths  of  failure  and  anguish  comes 
the  certain  promise  of  peace. 

Looking  back  along  the  progress  of  the  centuries,  we  find 
that  woman  has  attained  power  and  pre-eminence  chiefly  in 
the  realms  of  the  spirit.  Man  has  subdued  the  world,  but 
woman  has  subdued  man.  Mind  and  muscle  have  won  his 
victories ;  love  and  loveliness  have  gained  hers.  No  mon-^ 
arch  has  been  so  great,  no  peasant  so  lowly,  that  he  has  not 
been  glad  to  lay  his  best  at  the  feet  of  a  woman.  Is  there 
no  significance  in  this.?  Does  it  mean  simply  that  men 
have  been  trained  to  material  victory,  women  to  spiritual 
conquests  ?  As  well  might  we  adopt  the  famous  theory  that 
language  was  invented  by  a  convention  of  learned  societies 
assembled  for  that  purpose. 

N 


290  Woman^s  Worth 

The  degradation  and  suffering  of  woman  does  not  contra- 
dict, but  confirm  this  hypothesis.  In  the  race  as  well  as 
the  individual,  spiritual  development  comes  not  first.  The 
sweetest  saint  in  the  calendar  was  a  little  animal  for  the  first 
months  of  his  life.  In  the  ruder  stages  of  the  human  race 
physical  life  is  high,  but  spiritual  life  is  faint  and  feeble. 
Woman,  man's  inner,  finer,  dearer  self,  is  held  in  abeyance. 
She  can  be  only  spiritually  discerned,  but  his  spirit  is  scarce- 
ly yet  roused  into  life,  and  she  becomes  but  a  hewer  of 
wood  and  a  drawer  of  water ;  though  even  then  the  light 
which  he  can  not  see  shines  sometimes  into  his  closed  eyes 
and  warms  his  torpid  soul ;  then,  out  of  a  barbaric  past, 
down  the  gloomy  ages,  trembles  a  legend  of  truth  and  ten- 
derness that  makes  all  ages  kin.  In  the  lowest,  as  in 
the  highest  states  of  life,  man  treats  woman  precisely  as 
he  treats  his  own  spiritual  nature.  If  all  his  powers  are 
bent  to  self-indulgence  or  to  self  glorification,  woman  does 
but  minister  to  his  pleasures,  or  emphasize  his  grandeur. 
As  he  rises  in  the  scale,  she  rises  in  his  estimation.  The 
more  noble,  truthful,  self-sacrificing,  benevolent  he  becomes, 
the  more  tenderly  he  cherishes,  the  more  devoutly  he  serves 
where  once  he  exacted  and  despised.  Then  the  story  of 
the  Genesis  is  evolved.  Out  of  his  love  springs  her  life. 
She  who  was  his  prey  becomes  his  protector.  She  saves 
him  from  himself.  Fenced  in  by  his  care  from  outward 
hurt  and  hinderance,  she  guards  him,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, from  his  baser  impulses,  from  his  downward  tend- 
ency, from  his  reckless  strength  and  regnant  will. 

Thus  it  has  been,  and  thus  it  shall  be  under  the  sun. 
The  plant  which  flqwered  to  grace,  and  color,  and  fragrance 
amid  the  confusions  of  the  past,  drew  its  life  from  no  chance 
source,  struck  its  roots  into  no  shallow  soil.  Thorns  and 
brambles  abound,  and  many  a  heart  will  faint  before  the 
wilderness  shall  blossom  into  the  garden  of  the  Lord.     A 


and  Worthies sness.  291 

thousand  seeds  may  be  planted,  and  a  thousand  saphngs 
transplanted,  and  no  one  of  them  utterly  fail ;  but  it  is  this 
one  growth,  springing  spontaneously  from  the  soil,  tender, 
yet  hardy,  as  brave  as  beautiful,  that  shall  rise,  and  broaden, 
and  bourgeon  into  the  tree  of  life,  whose  leaves  are  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations. 


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